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METHODS 




OF 



TEACHING MODERN LANGUAGES 



PAPERS ON THE VALUE AND ON METHODS 

OF MODERN LANGUAGE 

INSTRUCTION. 



BY 

A. Marshall Elliott, Calvln Thomas, E. S. Joynes, W. T. Hewett, 

F. C. DE Sumichrast, a. Lodeman, F. M, Warren, E. H. Bab- 
i^" > 1/^ ' \ • 

bitt, C. H. Grandgent, O. B. Super, C. F. Kroeh, 
• ^ ■ (^ • ' 

W. Stuart Macgowan, H. C. G. von Jagemann. 



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BOSTON, U.S.A.: 

D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS 



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1893- 



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Copyright, 1893, 
By D. C. Heath & Co. 



C. J. PETERS & SON, 

Type-Settbks and Ei.ectrotypeks, 

146 High Stbeet, Boston. 



PUBLISHERS' NOTICE. 



In all departments of education teachers to-day, more than 
ever before, are reading the literature of their profession ; and 
it is hoped that modern language instructors may find in the 
following papers stimulus and suggestion in a branch of 
education that is now recognized as exceedingly important in 
any scheme of liberal training. 

Teachers of the modern languages have repeatedly inquired 
for copies of papers or addresses dealing with their profession, 
and it was suggested to us that it would be very acceptable 
and helpful if we should publish a collection of some of the 
best thoughts on the value and methods of Modern Language 
Teaching. We have therefore compiled this book of ad- 
dresses and articles that have come to our notice or have been 
mentioned to us by prominent friends of modern language 
instruction. By kindly consenting to their publication in 
this form, the authors have co-operated with us in presenting 
pedagogical opinions of interest to the thoughtful considera- 
tion of scholars and teachers. 

The order of these papers is due partly to their respective 

dates, and partly to the order in which they were suggested 

or presented to us. 

D. C. Heath & Co. 
Makch, 1893. 



+ 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Modern Languagks as a Coli-kgic Discipline 1 

By PU0KK,S80K A. JiAKSllALL ELLIOTT of Jolius Hopkius University. 

Obsehvations ui'on Method in the Teaching of Modeiin 

Languages 11 

By I'uoKK.ssuu Calvin Thomas of tlie Uuiversity of Michigan. 

Heading in Modeiin Language Study 29 

By Profkssou Edwaki) S. JoYNiiS of the University of South Caro- 
lina. 

The Natural Method (Criticised) 45 

By Professor W. T. Hewett of Cornell University. 

L^ Notes on the Teaching of French 50 

By Professor F. C. de .Sumiciirast of Harvard University. 

Practical and Psychological Tests of Modern Language 

Study 90 

By Professor A. Lodeman of Michigan State Normal .School. 

Collegiate Instructio'n in the Romance Languages . . 109 

By PROFES.SOR F. M. WARRENofAdelbert College. 

How to use Modern L.^vnguages as a Means of Mental 

Discipline 124 

ByMu. E. n. Barbitt, Instructor in Columbia College. 

I'^TnE Teaching of French and German in Our Public 

High Schools 138 

By Mr. C. FT. Grandgknt. Director of Modern Language Instruction 
in the Boston High and Latin Schools. 



VI CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

The Aim and Scope of the Study of Modekn Languages 

AND Methods of Teaching them 144 

By Professor O. B. Super of Dickinson College. 

The Natukai. METHCfb (Explained) . 153 

By Profkssor C. F. Kroeii of Stevens Institute of Technology. 

The "Reader" the Centke of Modern liANGUAGE Teach- 
ing 163 

By Mr. W. Stuart Macgowan of Cheltenham College, England. 

On the Use of the Foreign Language in the Ci.ass-room. 171 
By Professor H. C. G. von Jagemann of Harvard University. 



METHODS OF TEACHING MODERN 
LANGUAGES. 



MODERN LANGUAGES AS A COLLEGE DISCIPLINE.^ 

BY PROFESSOR A. M. ELLIOTT, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY. 

There is one aspect of the Greek-Modern Language ques- 
tion on which there has been no special stress laid, so far as 
I have seen, in the various discussions of it that Mr. Adams's 
paper has called out; viz., the importance of modern lan- 
guage study as a special disciplinary factor of our higher 
education. In truth, the few references to the subject outside 
of the favorable view held in the Phi-Beta-Kappa oration 
would seem to imply a denial of the existence of such an ele- 
ment altogether in the modern idioms as compared with the 
classic tongues. The eminent president of Yale College as- 
serts that they "are distinctly recognized as essential condi- 
tions of professional and business success, or accomplishments 
of gentlemanly culture." Professor Josiah P. Cooke of 
Harvard assures us that, in his opinion, " to compare German 
literature with the Greek, or, what is worse, French literature 
with the Latin, as a means of culture, implies a forgetfulness 
of tlie true spirit of literary culture." And a leading con- 
temporary journal, after qualifying all controversy of this 
sort as an " inexcusable display of ignorance," adds with a 

1 Read before tlie Modern Language Association of America, 1887, and reprinted 
witli tlie permission of tlie author. 



I MODERN LANGUAGES 

sort of oracular sanctity. " And for philology, there practically 
is no foundation except Latin and Greek, — and Greek rather 
than Latin." Such expressions ^s these show most clearly the 
dogmatic spirit in which this whole subject is approached by 
many advocates of the exclusive classical idea when the ques- 
tion of training comes up. As zealous holders of the only 
true faith, they would fain exclude the converts to modernism 
from all the distinctive elevating influences of their creed, 
and would relegate them to the domain of purely utilitarian 
interests, or to the changing caprices of society ; and this 
subordinate position is granted them more from the necessi- 
ties of the age in which we live than from any special feeling 
of their worth as members of the great corporate body of 
scholars. For the scholar in truth it is even hinted, in some 
cases, that their field is useless, and for the educator in par- 
ticular the subjects that occupy them are regarded as a species 
of cumbersome, worthless lumber that litters up the mental 
workshop, and that must be gotten rid of as soon as possible, 
if the range of the active powers of the mind is to be widened. 
In other words, it is set down as a tenet of axiomatic wisdom 
that modern languages have no place whatever among the 
formative elements which help to develop the mental faculties. 
This doctrine, however extreme it may seem, when thus 
plainly stated, is held by a large majority of those who repre- 
sent, at present, the guiding force in matters of education 
throughout our country ; but I apprehend that it is for the 
most part the result of traditional beliefs, or of the unhappy 
failure of methods, or of sheer prejudice in a few cases, 
rather than of actual experience in such matters. It may 
be doubted, in fact, whether this important branch of learn- 
ing has been represented by rigid scientific methods in our 
educational system sufficient to test even the most elemen- 
tary worth of its subjects as factors of a living power 
suited to intellectual growth. Until this shall be done, 
it is difficult to understand the fairn«ss of any comparison 



AS A COLLEGE DISCIPLINE. 3 

between them and another set of kindred subjects that has 
long received special cultivation by the most eminent scholars, 
and has held a prominent place in the training of our youth. 
In the controversy now before the country with reference to 
the merits of tlie study of Greek in our higher institutions, as 
compared with that of science and modern languages, I fail 
to see the a})propriateness of disparaging remarks on the edu- 
cating qualities of the latter, especially as to that part of the 
question that touches upon the modern idioms. Science has 
had tlie chance to cast off her swaddling clothes, and it is now 
only a question of time as to the position she will eventually 
occupy in the list of studies that are to constitute the building- 
elements of the mind. With the modern languages it is 
wholly different. They have but just started upon the road 
of a true scientific development, and will naturally require 
some 0})portunity to show their value as educating elements. 
But, on general principles, such comparisons as these are more 
or less odious in all circumstances, and they become especially 
so when there is an evident intention to multiply the claims 
to superiority of a given department of learning over others 
that are allowed few or more of the privileges that attach to 
the would-be favorite. The inconsistency of comparing the 
potential forces of any two systems of educational training 
without first according to both of them similar opportunities 
of cultivation, and like circumstances of growth, is obvious to 
every one who has not the drag-chain of some creed about his 
neck. » 

The reproach flung at the modern languages by the pai-- 
tisans of the exclusive order of classical studies, that they do 
not show brilliant results of scholarship in this country, is but 
a covert way of begging the question in a discussion of their 
relative standing in any grade of culture. Up to now no 
chance has been given to show whether favorable results may 
be obtained from them, since other linguistic learning has held 
the sway, to the driving out of all serious modern language 



4 MODERN LANGUAGES 

study. The time for pursuing them is often cut down to a 
minimum ; far less teaching force, proportionately, is allowed 
to them than to other departments ; no fixed standard of 
requirement is set for them, as an academic discipline ; in fine, 
they are practically crowded out of many college schedules, 
and then mercilessly inveighed against because those who fol- 
low them do not present, with all these disadvantages, as high 
arstandard of critical linguistic acquirement as if they had 
spent years of careful preparation in them. Until they shall 
have had a fair trial in the hands of Avell-trained, competent 
teachers ; until the study of them shall have been given all 
the favor in time and position which are accorded to the clas- 
sics in our colleges, it is difficult to see the justness of any 
demand that they shall make the same showing of general 
training or of special scholarly attainments. 

If we inquire into the depreciatory feeling with which the 
modern languages are regarded by scholars generally, we 
shall find, I think, that the responsibility for a great part of 
it, at least, rests upon the shoulders of those who have the 
chief power of appointment to positions in our higher in- 
stitutions. The fatal college nepotism that has pervaded 
this whole system in many places has practically ren- 
dered it a sort of closed corporation to all who are educated 
outside the pale of their own individual sanctuaries. The 
natural consequence has been that young, inexperienced, and, 
only too often, poorly prepared assistants have been called to 
office, and through them the departments have had to suffer 
not alone for a lack of efficient instruction, but also in the 
general appreciation both of the student and of an intelligent 
public. This misfortune has fallen more frequently upon the 
modern languages, perhaps, than upon any other depart- 
ments, from the simple fact that the idea is so generally prev- 
alent that anybody can teach them. 

We have only to examine a considerable number of cata- 
logues of our colleges to see that this unfortunate state of 



AS A COLLEGE DISCIPLINE. 5 

affairs is much more extensive tlian is generally supposed. 
A boy who lias spent one academic year of two hours per 
week, for example, on his French, is then called to teach it ; 
or, again, a gentleman who knows nothing of either French or 
German receives an appointment in them, and goes abroad for 
two months in the summer to prepare himself for the impor- 
tant position ; such are but too common illustrations of the 
kind of hands into which these branches often fall. What 
wonder, then, in such circumstances, that the pupil should lose 
all resj^ect for his subject, and grow conceited with reference 
to his own acquirements in it, while as yet he has not an 
inkling of decent knowledge. This procedure is a downright 
disgrace to any system of instruction, and should be forced 
aside by the timely action of the leading institutions of this 
country, by placing all language study upon an equal footing 
with the same rights and privileges, and by demanding like 
results of discipline from both the classical and modern 
idioms. Tlie time would then soon come in which the latter 
would no longer be regarded as fit tools simply for the busi- 
ness man, or as only pleasing accomplishments of the society 
dilettanti. 

The importance of having specially trained teachers in this 
work would seem manifest from the very nature of the subject, 
and yet no such necessity has been generally recognized by us 
up to the present time. That intelligent young men become 
in consequence simple information machines, stuffed with 
systems of facts that they have no chance to digest, and that 
they come to play mere parrot roles, learning their task-work 
without any stimulus to awaken their powers of observation 
or shape their judgment, is unfortunately a sad fact in much 
of our modern language study. A further consequence of 
this state of things is a degradation of the subject, a stifling 
of all spontaneous interest, and a deadening apathy on the 
part of the student. No incentive is placed before him to 
awaken curiosity for learning, to strengthen the perceptive 



6 MODERN LANGUAGES 

faculties, and to cultivate the power of concentrated mental 
effort. It is to this end that I would urge here an intelligent 
historical, disciplinary study of these subjects, as peculiarly 
adapted to a wide range and variety of minds. In recognizing 
this cardinal fact, German educators have given them an im- 
portant place in their schools and gymnasia, and for the last 
two decades have been thereby rewarded with most gratifying 
results in the general linguistic training of their youth. No- 
where else as there has stress been laid upon the philological 
study of these idioms, and the natural consequence has fol- 
lowed that faulty methods have been rooted out, the standard 
of their appreciation everywhere raised, and rich fruits gar- 
nered in their advance in academic discipline. It was this 
religious regard for the spirit rather than the letter of lan- 
guage that lifted Germany out of the Slough of Despond in 
which all linguistic study was sunk three-quarters of a century 
ago, and gave her such vantage ground over all other nations 
that they will probably never be able to overtake her in this 
work. Here, too, just in proportion as methods have been 
bettered and the true spirit of linguistic training developed, 
the modern languages have risen higher and higher in the 
scale of potent agencies for mind-culture, and, in some parts 
of the empire, have for years stood beside the classics and 
shared with them all their rights and privileges. The begin- 
nings of a similiar change, too, have been noted in our own 
country, where, in proportion as the worth of these studies 
has become known, they have universally taken a higher 
stand among the disciplince for special education. The wealth 
of material they offer for philological training and historical 
investigation is becoming more appreciated every day, and it 
is now only a bold spirit and rigidly scientihc method that are 
generally needed to raise them, in the estimation of scholars, 
above the plane of simple "polite accomplishments." The 
principles and scope of their scientific study have never been 
stated clearly and sharply enough in our plans of college edu- 



AS A C0LLEGI5 DISCIPLINE. 7 

cation, and the result has been that they are only too often 
regarded as fit subjects for those who work little, and there- 
fore as necessarily constituting a part of the "soft electives," 
that " Serbonian bog " where all intellectual virtues are swal- 
lowed up. 

The defective methods according to which they are some- 
times taught, and the summary manner in which they are fre- 
(juently shoved aside when they clash with other studies, 
cannot but discredit them in the mind of the serious student. 
It cannot be doubted, too, that it is a grave mistake for edu- 
cators to depreciate their value so long as they occupy a place 
in our scheme of instruction, since it is absurd to suppose 
tliey do not exert a detrimental influence on the habits of dis- 
cipline in other departments when they are thus disparagingly 
treated. No one set of disciplinary elements can be specially 
neglected, as a part of any given system, without producing 
baneful effects upon others connected with it, however remote 
they may be in subject-matter, or different in mode of presen- 
tation. But we are obliged to confess that this attitude of 
college authorities toward the modern language branches is in 
part, at least, the fault of the department itself. The shift- 
less, slip-shod instruction that boasts of teaching any language 
with two hours per week, during a single academic year, must 
naturally tend to make a slouch of the otherwise honest, en- 
thusiastic student, and turn into a conceited charlatan the 
pupil who, for lack of previous sound training, is disposed to 
skim over his subjects. To earnest and experienced educators 
such a procedure must seem sheer nonsense, and it is to be ex- 
pected, therefore, that they will have as little of it as possible. 
The fact of the matter is, that our whole system of modern 
language instruction needs overhauling in this respect before 
it can hope to command the consideration that it ought to 
have, both from scholars in other departments, and from the 
public at large. It is useless to plead for favor on the one 
hand, and blame those who underrate its value on the 



8 MODERN LANGUAGES 

other, unless we recast our methods, and show by convincing 
results that there is abundant material for our work. The 
subject-matter is surely not at fault with reference to the pres- 
ent abnormal position this branch of learning holds in the 
estimation of scholars. Obloquy has been thrown upon it be- 
cause of unjust prejudices in certain cases ; in others be- 
cause the new-comer does not tread the accustomed ruts of a 
traditional creed. It is, therefore, viewed with suspicion ; 
but until its powers shall have been tested by the same dis- 
cipline of years required for other departments, and it shall 
have failed to meet the demands made of it, we can hardly es- 
teem it fair to condemn it to the exclusive and not flattering 
regime of society circles and of business interests. No means, 
in my opinion, could at present be more efficient in raising this 
subject to a higher level of development than the introduction 
of a thorough historical basis for all college work. It is stating 
a trite fact when we assert that every intelligent pupil is in- 
terested in understanding the whys and wherefores of phe- 
nomena that he has learned to use mechanically. How much 
greater interest, then, must a subject arouse in him from the 
beginning, if, instead of playing a parrot-like part, he is led 
to exercise his ingenuity and test his powers in the discovery 
of relations before hidden to him ; and this he will readily do 
if the history is steadily kept before him of the growth oi 
form and expression, with their resemblances to modes of 
thought already familiar to him, and to the natural develop- 
ment of the varying phenomena of speech in general. Lan- 
guage thus ceases to be a sort of " Fifteen Puzzle " to him, 
since he sees philosophy enough in it to lubricate the other- 
wise dry machinery of grammar. He learns with zest any 
new series of facts connected with it because they serve, in 
their turn, to further illustrate the principles that have become 
fundamental notions, so to speak, in his mind. And no ex- 
perienced educator, I think, will maintain that the learner 
can acquire these habits of comparison and reflection more 



AS A COLLEGE DISCIPLINE. 9 

readily in a vehicle or system of thought the farther separated 
it is from his own. The real training that belongs to all lan- 
guage-study must come more rapidly in proportion as we can 
eliminate differences of idioms during the primary stages of 
it, and carry the pupil back to a few principal sources of 
growth, which have their raison (Vetre in a common origin. 
The modern idioms will suggest themselves, here, as most 
valuable adjuncts to this rational mode of language-study, 
since their processes of creation and development lie within 
the range of strict historical proof, and their life-liistory may 
be followed up step by step through all the stages of their 
complex growth. If it is the object to get the learner as far 
away as possible from his natural intellectual bent, as some 
writers on this subject would seem to suggest, why not ply 
him with Chinese or Arabic formula, which would require ex- 
traordinary mental gymnastics ? Why not force him, from 
the start, to spend time in casting his thoughts in the artifi- 
cial mould of Sanskrit or some other complex system, as foreign 
as possible to his natural analytic routine ? It is precisely to 
avoid this squandering of time and energy that a study of the 
modern European languages is so useful before proceeding to 
that of the older tongues. The student in them becomes ac- 
quainted with forms of thought-expression closely allied to 
his own ; his mind can suit itself to the new clothing with less 
waste of time than by tbe reverse i)rocess ; and thus by a reg- 
ular progression from the better-known types of his own 
tongue to the less familiar word-building and phrase-setting of 
the new idiom, he attains the objects of his labors. I hold, in 
truth, that the rational way to learn language is the same as 
for other things ; that is, to move from the known to the un- 
known, to pass from the native tongue to the next-lying liv- 
ing system, where this is possible, and thence to that form of 
speech in which the so-called dead language is locked up. To 
study Latin, therefore, I would begin with French and work 
on to a tolerable mastery of Italian, after which the mother- 



10 MODERN LANGUAGES. 

idiom would come almost of itself, and all three languages 
would be learned more understaudingly than the ancient 
tongue alone can possibly be according to the present system ; 
and the time required for all three, I think, would be found 
little more than what we now spend on Latin. However un- 
orthodox this doctrine may seem, I have seen it tried in a few 
cases with such marked success that I am sure, if for Mr. 
Adams some such bridge as this could have been thrown 
across the chasm between his native English and the domain 
of Greek roots, we should never have known "A College 
Eetich." But, on the other hand, even if we accept the cur- 
rent theory, and place the older idioms first in the line of lin- 
guistic topics to be presented to the mind, irrespective of any 
natural relation, it seems to me self-evident that our order of 
progression would be incomplete if we should allow any break 
to exist between the training-period of youth and the future 
practical activity of the man. Between college and life there 
ought to be no gap. The ending of every system of instruc- 
tion, whatever it may be, should naturally lap on to the sphere 
of those broader and more varied duties that crowd upon the 
man in the fierce battle of his after-life. And I cannot but 
feel, therefore, that Schleiermacher is wholly correct when he 
remarks in his Erzielningslehre, '' If the natural passage 
from the school into life is not reached, then we have either 
been upon a false route, or we did not begin right." Have we in 
America struck this bridge in language-study ? Does the 
present position of modern languages in our higher institu- 
tions, as connecting-link between the old and the new, between 
classicism and modern life, fully represent that stage of care- 
ful transition discipline which our age demands ? 



OBSERVATIONS UPON METHOD IN THE TEACH- 
ING OF MODERN LANGUAGES.^ 

BY PROFESSOR CALVIN THOMAS, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN. 

It is a very common practice in professional discussions 
to begin with some remarks upon the importance of one's 
subject. I, however, will venture upon a different kind of 
exordium by expressing the opinion that my subject is not 
of much importance ; or, at any rate, that it is not half so 
momentous as a great many people suppose it to be. I have 
a conviction which has been strengthening for some time, that 
the subject of method in teaching receives in general more 
attention than it deserves. I think it probable, nay to my 
mind it is certain, that a good deal of the teaching that goes 
on in this country is suffering severely because of haying too 
much stress upon matters of method. Quite a large portion of 
the teaching fraternity are making of method, if not a fetish 
to worship, at least a hobby to ride, and that to the detriment 
of the country's highest pedagogical interests. If I can trust 
my own observation, a person's reverence for what is com- 
monly called method usually varies inversely with his own 
intellectual breadth. 

Let these remarks of mine not be misunderstood. There is 
a sense in which a teacher's method is the most important 
thing about him, is, in fact, the essential source of his power 
and his influence. His method in this sense is nothing less 
than his entire character displaying itself in his work. It 
designates not so much a mode of procedure for accomplishing 

1 Read at the first meeting of the Michigan Schoolmasters' Club, 1S86, 



12 OBSERVATIONS UPON METHOD IN THE 

a particular piece of work, as rather the spirit which informs 
and directs all his work. In other words, it is the working 
expression of his personality, his general way of imparting 
his own intellectual life to his pupil. But the word method 
is much more commonly used as synonymous with routine. 
It has reference to the details of procedure, and is a name, not 
for the incommunicable secret of personality, but for the easily 
divulged secret of machinery. Now, it is method in this latter 
sense that I think receives more respect and more attention 
than it deserves. I am aware, of course, that it is not easy 
always to keep these two senses rigidly apart in one's mind, 
and to respect method in the former sense while thinking but 
indifferently of it in the latter. One's routine may be inti- 
mately bound up with his personality, but it need not be so, and 
usually it is not so. Nor do I say that matters of routine are 
never of any moment. There may be circumstances in which 
it is highly important to decide between the comparative 
merits of two or more processes for accomplishing a given 
result. What I deprecate is the wide-spread tendency I ob- 
serve to treat routine as if that were the thing of chief impor- 
tance ; as if it were the real key to a teacher's power and 
usefulness. For that it certainly is not. There are always 
two other questions upon which more depends than upon this 
questions of. How ? These are the questions, What ? and 
Why ? Let the teacher put to himself the inquiries : What 
knowledge or capacity is it that I am seeking to impart ? and 
to what end ? Let him settle these clearly in his own mind, 
and then the question, How best to teach ? will usually take 
care of itself. At any rate, it will no longer seem a difficult 
or bewildering problem. 

Having now defined my position with regard to method in 
general, I turn to the subject of modern languages for the 
purpose of illustrating, amplifying, and perhaps here and 
there qualifying, the views already set forth. 

In recent years the public has heard a great deal about a so- 



TEACHING OF MODERN LANG U AGES. 13 

called natural method in the teachinj^ of languages. This 
method is really nothing new in tlie history of the world ; it 
has been known and used for centuries. But it has acquired 
great notoriety in this country of late on account of the vigor- 
ous crusade its votaries have been carrying on against the tradi- 
tional practice of the schools. What this traditional practice 
is, is of course well enough known. A pupil wlio is to study, 
let us say German, is first required to commit to memory the 
grammatical inflections of the language. For the purpose of 
aiding his memory in the retention of the grammatical forms, 
and also for the purpose of giving him the beginnings of 
a vocabulary, he reads as he goes along a certain number 
of easy German exercises, and likewise translates a number of 
easy English exercises into German. All of this study is es- 
sentially grammatical. The learner then takes up some Ger- 
man reader, with which he works for a few weeks or months, 
as the case may be, the aim being to fix thoroughly in his 
mind the elementary i)rincii)les of tlie language he has been 
studying. After this he takes up the study of literature, and 
liis goal is henceforth simply to learn to read German as 
readily and as intelligently as possible. 

Now, a few years ago we began to hear from certain quarters 
that all this is wrong; that a pupil should learn a foreign 
tongue just as he learned his mother tongue in his infancy; 
that is, by at once beginning to hear it spoken and to imitate 
what he hears. We are told that the initial study of grammar 
is unnatural, since the child hears nothing of the grammar of 
his own language until after he has learned to speak said lan- 
guage, and to speak it, mayhap, with commendable correct- 
ness. From this the corollary naturally follows that the 
teacher's chief effort should be to see to it that his pupil shall 
of all tilings learn to speak the language he is studying. The 
originators of this agitation were in the main very excellent 
teachers, who would have succeeded with any method. As it 
was, having secured good results of a certain kind, they began 



14 OBSERVATIONS UPON METHOD IN THE 

to think the magic was in the method rather than in them- 
selves. They were able to secure striking testimonials from 
distinguished persons as to their success in teaching pupils to 
speak, and so they started an agitation. And the agitation 
has grown. Its promoters have multiplied and spread abroad 
through the land. They are busily writing articles, essays, 
prefaces, in praise of their doctrine. To a certain extent they 
have got the ear of the public, wiiich is usually ready to listen 
to any one that comes talking majestically about " modern 
ways " of doing things, and winking his eye and biting his 
thumb at the expense of the old fogies. Many of these ener- 
getic reformers use very positive language. They tell us in 
effect that a notable educational conflict has been going on, 
which has now, however, been decided in their favor. They 
claim to have carried through a great reform, and do not hesi- 
tate to assure the public that any one who in these days con- 
tinues to teach a modern language in the old way is behind the 
age. Out of much literature in this vein which is continually 
falling under my eye I will quote only the following, from the 
preface to a lately published German Eeader : — 

" It is now conceded by most teachers," says this writer, 
^' that, in learning any modern language, little is gained by 
beginning with the study of the grammar, and that the most 
successful method is the natural one, by which a child learns 
to speak its own language ; i. e., by constant practice in conver- 
sation. A mass of grammatical rules and forms at the outset 
renders the subject dry and uninteresting, and the time so 
spent can be much more profitably employed in colloquial ex- 
ercises, which are absolutely necessary in acquiring fluency of 
speech, no matter how thoroughly the rules of grammar have 
been mastered." 

Surely it is trifling with serious matters to say of such a 
statement as this that it is important if true. If true, it is, 
in the light of what is now actually going on in the great 
majority of American schools and colleges, enough to take 
one's breath away. 



TEACHING OF MODERN LANGUAGES. 15 

What, then, are the merits of this position ? What are the 
general merits of this controversy so far as there is any con- 
troversy ? (The quarrel is after all a very one-sided one.) 
This is a question which, as I surmise, must be of especial in- 
terest to persons who may have found it necessary or conven- 
ient to undertake to teach a modern language before having 
attained to a very wide or deep scholarship in the language, 
and before they have formed through personal experience an 
independent judgment with regard to the matter under con- 
sideration. Such persons may well vv'ish to know how a 
conservative teacher can go on his way and live and labor una- 
baslied in the face of all these breezy proclamations like the 
one quoted. 

Well, I have something to say on that subject; but, before 
proceeding to say it, I desire to remark incidentally that tlie 
statement quoted is very far from being true. What the 
writer says is : " It is noxo conceded hij most teachers, that in 
learning any modern language, little is gained by beginning 
with the study of the grammar." To be true, the statement 
should run : " It is now conceded, and for that matter always 
has been conceded by most teachers, that with pupils of a 
certain kind, and for the attainment of certain results, little is 
gained by beginning with the study of the grammar." Or to 
speak more explicitly : all teachers are agreed that if you 
wish to teach any one to speak a language, the learner must 
be given practice in speaking. Tlie sooner you begin, and the 
more practice you offer, the better. But this is not an admis- 
sion wrung but yesterday from the teaching profession by the 
successes of the natural method. Nobody, so far as I know, 
ever held or advocated any other opinion. 

Then, as to that other observation that a " mass of gram- 
matical rules and forms at the outset renders the subject dry 
and uninteresting," when shall we hear the end of such non- 
sense ? When shall we see the end of this wretched desire to 
make all things soft and sweet for tlie youths and maidens of 



16 OBSERVATIONS tTPOK METHOD IN THE 

this generation ? Grammar deals with the facts and the laws 
of language, and language is the most important of all human 
institutions. Whatever interest, whatever charm, attaches to 
the study of any historical science ought to attach to the study 
of language. The facts of grammar are as interesting as any 
other facts, and the laws of grammar are as interesting as 
other laws. It was doubtless unfortunate to subordinate 
sense, poetry, philosophy, history, — everything to grammar, 
as was done by a good many teachers, especially of the Greek 
and Latin, a few years ago. There are better uses for the 
masterpieces of literature than to be made so many vehicles 
for teaching grammar. But, on the other hand, it is equally 
pernicious to speak of grammar and to treat it as if it were 
some miasma from which the dear boys and girls must be ten- 
derly shielded just as far as possible. Let them learn the 
grammar and learn it well. It will be good for them. If the 
teacher has the instincts of a scholar himself, the facts of lan- 
guage will not seem dull or uninteresting to him ; and if they 
do not seem so to him, he will usually contrive that they shall 
not seem so to his pupil. But suppose that they do seem so ? 
Or rather, suppose the learner occasionally has a sensation 
that he is working ? What of it ? There are worse things in 
the world than that. He is supposed to be preparing in 
school for life, and when he gets out of school the Genius of 
Life will admonish him at every turn that valuable acquisi- 
tions have to be worked for. He may as well learn early to 
face this simple doctrine and to make the best of it. It is no 
part of the teacher's business to make things easy at the ex- 
pense of thoroughness. It is a mistake if he thinks that the 
real and lasting regard of his pupil can be won in that way. 
Healthy boys and girls, and young men and young women in 
school and college, do not want an easy time. They wish for 
work to do, and they enjoy work. It is not their desire to 
float down the stream with a soft-hearted pedagogue to keep 
them clear of all the difficulties and asperities of navigation. 



TEACHING OF MODERN LANGUAGF:S. 17 

They prefer to paddle, and if the course lies up the stream, 
against a tolerably swift current, they like it all the better. 
In the high school they may talk freely about the sweets of 
idleness, and may at times seem to be rather fertile in precau- 
tions against over-exertion. So the college student will often 
profess to have a lively affinity for what he calls a " soft 
snap." But this is simply a conventional student dialect, — 
a surface indication, which belies what is underneath. The 
truth is that the vast majority of students in both school and 
college prefer to be kept busy, and they have, both in the long 
run and in the short run, the greatest respect for the teacher 
who gives them work to do, insists upon their doing it, 
and does not seem over anxious to make things easy. Res 
severa verum gaudium is the true student motto the world 
over. 

I am of course not saying that of two ways for accomplish- 
ing a given end the more difficult and laborious is to be chosen 
on the ground that students after all like to work, and that 
work is good for them. By no means. There are always 
subjects enough to learn which will tax one's strength all 
that it ought to be taxed. It is therefore always a proper and 
wise economy to select the easiest way of attaining any given 
result. What I am arguing is, that when a line of work has 
once proved its usefulness, it is not to be discarded and spoken 
ill of simply because the learner finds it difficult or " dry." 
The road which he thinks dry and difficult may be precisely 
the best road for him to travel. 

I come now to the application of the thought expressed 
some time ago, which Avas, in effect, that any controversy con- 
cerning method in teaching will usually be found to have un- 
derlying it a more important question as to what should be 
taught. This is certainly true in the case before us. The issue 
between the advocates of the natural method and those who 
use the other method does not turn upon the comparative 
merits of two ways for accomplishing the same purpose ; it 



18 OBSERVATIONS UPON METHOD IN THE 

turns upon the comparative merits of two different purposes 
to be accomplished. 

The alternative is simply this : Is it best in teaching a 
modern language to make it our chief aim that the learner 
shall acquire some ability to speak the language, or shall we 
make it our chief business to teach him to read the language 
with some scientific understanding of it ? If one accepts the 
former as the true ideal of school and college instruction, then 
it is very certain that the natural method, or any modification 
of it which affords tlie utmost possible practice in speaking, 
is the best method. If, on the other hand, one accepts the lat- 
ter as the true ideal, then it is equally certain that the other 
method is the better. 

What, then, is the true ideal ? What ought we to aim at 
in the teaching of a modern language ? Or rather, what ought 
we to aim at in the teaching of a modern language in school 
and college ? This limitation of the question is of importance, 
since the circumstances under which we are compelled to 
work in school and college may very possibly exercise a de- 
termining influence upon us when we are attempting to decide 
the questions what to aim at and how to go to work. For 
example : I might, and very certainly I should, proceed in one 
way with a large class of university students whom I ex- 
pected to meet four times a week, and in quite another way 
with a child who was to live with me for several years in my 
own family ; and in still another way with a class of three or 
four whom I expected to be with me for several hours each 
day. We must look at this question with reference to the 
circumstances that are, and forever must be, imposed upon us 
in school and college. German, for example, is not begun by 
our pupils in their early childhood, nor can the study be kept 
vip for ten or twelve years. In the present crowded state of 
our school and collegiate courses such a thing is out of the 
question, and it must forever remain out of the question unless 
it can be shown that some great, some very great advantage 



TEACHING OF MODERN LANGUAGES. 19 

would result from it. In my opinion no such showing will 
ever be made. I admit, of course, that if all persons who 
studied German in our schools were to begin the study in 
childhood, and to begin it with the expectation of keeping it 
up through a long succession of years, then certain questions 
might arise with regard to the teaching of the language which 
are not now living questions at all. I, however, am very far 
from thinking that such an innovation would be desirable. 
So tliat I can claim to be discussing this subject here not 
simply from the standpoint of what is and what is likely to 
continue to be, but also from the standpoint of what ought 
to be. 

Upon hearing this inquiry, What should be our aim in the 
teaching of German ? many persons, particularly those who are 
themselves unschooled, will be inclined to answer at once : 
Why, it should be your aim to impart to your pupil a com- 
plete mastery of the language, so that he can read, write, and 
speak it ; can even think in it, or crack jokes and write verses 
in it. But those who have done some work upon a foreign 
language, and especially those who have tried to teach one, 
will understand at once that a programme of this sort would be 
simply what Mr. Tilden called a "barren ideality." It is of 
no use to hitch our wagon to a star in that fashion. To learn 
to speak any language in any decent manner demands long 
and assiduous practice in speaking. To learn to speak it at all 
well demands long association with those who speak it as 
their native tongue. And this requires tjme. To learn to 
read a language, again, requires long practice in reading. One 
must have read a large number of books from different periods 
of the language. He must have acquired some first-hand 
familiarity with its literature. And this, again, requires time. 
We have here two different disciplines. Now, if in our school 
work one of these disciplines is accented, the other must be 
neglected. There is simply no other way, without involving 
a very much greater expenditure of time than we now make. 
Which, then, shall we accent ? 



20 OBSERVATIONS UPON RIETHOD IN THE 

Among the great unschooled public the ability, real or 
apparent, to speak a foreign language undoubtedly counts as 
a great thing. They look upon such ability as the natural 
and necessary outcome of linguistic study. Parents covet the 
accomplishment for their children. For a long time a little 
French was a necessary item in the intellectual outfit of a 
fashionable young lady. All over the country multitudes of 
boys and girls are trying to learn to speak German, and that 
without reference to any particular use they expect to make 
of the acquisition, but from the general impression that it's a 
good thing to do. Very intelligent people are now and then 
found crying out that it is a disgrace that students should 
pursue the study of German four or five years, and then not 
be able to speak it. As if that, and that only, were the true 
criterion by which to decide whether the stiident has got any 
good from the study. 

Well, now let us inquire what is the precise value, for 
average graduates of our schools and colleges, of the ability 
to speak a foreign language ? I say average graduates, since 
it is obviously with reference to them that we must shape our 
courses of study and our methods of teaching. We cannot 
shape these with reference to the occasional student who 
might wish to prepare for a residence in Germany or for a 
position as German clerk in a business house. 

Whatever value the ability to speak a foreign language may 
have for average graduates ought to be found, I should say, 
along one of two lines. Its value ought to be either practical 
or educational. I *am aware of no other lines of importance 
along which its value ought reasonably to be sought. The 
word "practical" I use here in the manner of the world's 
people as synonymous with commercial. That is, to be sure, 
a very vicious use of the word. I would not for a moment 
admit that, even if a much better case could be made out than 
can be for the commercial value of the ability to speak a for- 
eign language, that therefore we should make the imparting 



TEACHING OF MODERN LANGUAGES. 21 

of such ability the chief aim of our teaching in the schools. 
We cannot throw too often or too hard in the face of the 
public the fact that our business is educational. Our work is 
the building up and the leading out of minds, and not the 
teaching of crafts, trades, tricks, and techniques to get a liv- 
ing with. Whatever has a high educational value has a high 
'practical value, since nothing is of more practical moment 
than the training of minds. But using the dialect of the 
age, what is to be said of the practical, i. e., commercial, value 
of the ability to speak a foreign tongue ? This is a matter 
about which I imagine that a good deal of loose thinking and 
talking prevails, which have given rise to misapprehension. 

It is of course true that the command of two languages has, 
for one who is seeking a position in a community where 
there is a large foreign population, a real commercial value. 
To deny this would be absurd. Professional and business 
men are continually saying in our hearing, " I'd give a thou- 
sand dollars if I could speak German." The boy or the girl who 
desires employment in a city like this, or like Detroit, undoubt- 
edly has an advantage if able to speak German. But what kind 
of ability is it that is meant in such cases ? A smattering of 
the language will not suffice. It is not enough that the appli- 
cant should be able to say. Good-morning ! and How do 
you do ? and What time is it ? It will not suffice if he even 
have at his tongue's end the whole wisdom of Ollendorf, and 
be able to say ever so glibly that the wife of the butcher is 
more handsome than the nephew of the baker. But he must 
be able to speak German ; not as school-children use that 
phrase, not as it is used by the professors in summer schools 
of languages, but as men of business and of the world under- 
stand it. He must have, at least for all the purposes of the 
position that he seeks, a fluent and ready command of the 
language. 

But cannot this superior grade of ability be imparted in 
the schools ? Practically it cannot. It is indeed true that 



22 OBSERVATIONS UPON METHOD IN THE 

if any competent teacher were to take a very small class of 
boys, all of whom wished to become German clerks in a dry- 
goods store, and if he were to meet them every day for an 
hour and talk nothing but dry-goods store to them for a mat- 
ter of two or three years, he might thus contrive to give them 
an indifferent preparation for entrance upon the duties of Ger- 
man clerk in a dry-goods store. But their preparation would 
be none of the best. They could get a much better one, and 
that too in less time, by means of an apprenticeship, or by 
living in a German famil}^. And then the time has not come 
for managing our educational institutions on that principle. 

But perhaps it may be asked whether it is not possible, by 
means of general conversational instruction and practice in the 
schools, to impart such command of the German language for 
all purposes, that the learner upon leaving school can fill any 
position where a knowledge of German is required? In 
answer to that question it must be said emphatically that it 
is not possible. The conditions of the school forbid. The 
teacher meets his pupils in classes (and these classes are 
often large), five hours or less each week of the school year. 
Each pupil has a few minutes' practice on certain days of the 
week in speaking German. All the rest of the time, with his 
teacher, his schoolmates, his parents at- home, he speaks Eng- 
lish. Now, no one can learn to speak a foreign language in 
that way. To do that requires months or even years of con- 
stant practice, through association with those who speak the 
language as their mother tongue. You can no more teach a 
person to speak a foreign language by means of class instruc- 
tion given at stated intervals, than you can teach him to swim 
by giving courses of illustrated lectures in a 7 X 9 bath-room. 
The thing never has been done, never will be done by the 
natural method or by any other method ; and any one who 
professes to be able to do it may be safely set down as a 
quack. I know very well that some rather striking results 
can be achieved in this direction. I have experimented with 



TEACHING OF MODERN LANGUAGES. 23 

the matter myself, and am familiar with the reports of those 
who have done much more and much better than I can claim 
to have done. It is possible by sedulous attention to the sub- 
ject, continued through a considerable period of time, to teach 
a class to speak German in the class-room with tolerable flu- 
ency and correctness. Any one not an expert listening to 
such a class easily gets the impression that they can really 
handle the German language, — can actually " speak German" 
in some proper sense of the term. But alas, it is only the 
class-room dialect that they speak. Their discourse moves in 
a very narrow range. They do but say over certain phrases and 
sentences and idioms that they have heard and learned. Out- 
side of this beaten round of expression, which they never hear 
or need to use outside of the class-room, they are perfectly 
helpless. On the street, at the store, in society, their German 
''conversation " leaves them in the lurch at once when they 
attempt to operate it. And so they take to using their 
costly acquisition of foreign speech simply for purposes of 
diversion. They say, " Wie befiiiden Sie sich," or " Comvient 
vous portez-vous ? " where they might just as well say, " How 
are you ? " and make no further use of their accomplishment. 
The simple truth is that the attainable results in this direc- 
tion of teaching students in the class-room to speak a foreign 
language are so insignificant as to be utterly devoid of any 
practical value whatever, out in the world. And so there is 
no use in aiming at these results with reference to their com- 
mercial value, even if we were to admit the propriety of teach- 
ing subjects in school and college out of purely commercial 
considerations. 

But what of the educational value of this acquisition ? This 
is for us the really important question. I have spoken of its 
supposed commercial value only for the purpose of correcting 
what I deem a common misapprehension. I have tried to show 
that the smattering of conversational ability which the schools 
can impart is worthless on the market, and, conversely, that 



24, OBSERVATIONS UPON METHOD IN THE 

the kind, of ability which has a market value is beyond the 
reach of school training to impart. If we should attempt to 
impart it by quadrupling the time given to the study, and. by 
devoting all our energies to teaching conversation, we should 
even then be coming into hopeless competition with other 
easier and more expeditious methods of acquiring the same 
thing. One who especially desired to learn to speak German 
could learn it so much better by living a few months in a 
German family. Furthermore, in this country, wherever a 
foreign population is numerou.s enough to make a knowledge 
of two languages commercially valuable, there are always 
a multitude of boys and girls growing up who are bilingual 
from childhood. They are usually numerous enough to fill all 
positions where their particular capacity is specially required. 
Who would pass by them to take up with the imperfect, un- 
satisfactory product of the schools ? 

We must, therefore, it seems to me, admit that if the ability 
to speak a foreign language has an}^ value that is within the 
reach of the schools, that value must be educational. How is 
it, then, with regard to this ? There is a wide-spread impres- 
sion that the ability to speak a foreign language is in itself 
an important evidence of culture. It would appear as if this 
impression ought to correct itself when one sees how very 
many people there are in the world who can speak two or 
more languages with some fluency, and who are nevertheless 
without anything that can properly be called education. But 
the impression does not correct itself. People go on assuming 
that any person who can speak another tongue than his native 
one must have passed through a course of intellectual disci- 
pline proportionate in value to his fluency in speaking. In 
the minds of many, — and even of many who ought to know 
better, — fluency of speech is the only criterion by which to 
judge whether a course of study in a modern language has 
been profitable. 

Now, all this is very erroneous. The ability to speak a for- 



TEACHING OF MODEKN LANGUAGES. 26 

eign language is a matter of practice, not of intellectual disci- 
pline. Proficiency in the acconiplisliment depends simply 
upon the opportunity one has had, and the use one has made 
of his opportunity, for practice. It is a trick, a craft, a tech- 
nique, quite comparable with the ability to telegraph, or to 
write short-hand. It has in itself only a very slight and a 
very low educational value. Suppose that an English-speaking 
boy some day learns at school that the German for ''All men 
are mortal " is " Alle 3'Ienschen sind sterhlich." What has he 
added to his intellectual outfit ? Nothing at all. He has 
simply got hold of a new set of symbols by which to commu- 
nicate, if necessary, an idea that was already in his mind. 
From an educational point of view his acquisition is of the 
same order as if he had learned to tick off the English words 
on a telegraph instrument, to write them in short-hand, or to 
set tliem in type in a printing-office. But education deals 
with the getting of new ideas, with the enlargement of the 
mental horizon. The thought that I am here seeking to pre- 
sent finds a good illustration in the ease with which very 
young children learn to talk in a foreign language. If a mem- 
ber of this club, ignorant of German, were to go to Germany 
for a year's residence, and to take with him his three-year-old 
son ; and if then he were to engage a teacher for himself, and 
work hard for a year, making use of all the expedients which 
are usually resorted to for the purpose of learning to speak 
German, meanwhile letting his son play at liberty about the 
house and street, he would find at the end of the year that he 
himself would be able to speak German in a halting, imper- 
fect, unidiomatic, humiliating sort of way, which would betray 
his foreign extraction at every word. The little four-year-old, 
on the other hand, would use the language, so far as he needed 
to use language at all, just like a native. The reverse of this 
depressing picture is that upon returning home the child 
would, at the end of a second year, completely have lost his 
acquisition, while the father's would have suffered but little. 



26 OBSERVATIONS UPON METHOD IN THE 

This furnishes us with the real argument against sending our 
children abroad, or putting them in the charge of foreign gov- 
ernesses, in order that they may learn to speak German and 
French in childhood. The accomplishment acquired with such 
ease by tlie little ones goes just as easily as it came when the 
opportunity for constant practice is withdrawn. The plan is 
a good one where the circumstances are such that one will 
have through life constant need and occasion to make use of 
the accomplishment acquired thus in infancy. Such circum- 
stances exist in numerous European countries. For the grad- 
uates of our schools and colleges, however, circumstances of 
that kind do not exist. Even if we could in the schools 
accomplish far more than we really can in the way of impart- 
ing conversational ability, it woukl still not be worth while 
to make that our chief aim, since we should be perfectly sure 
that in a few years after leaving school our graduates would 
lose through lack of practice the accomplishment so labori- 
ously acquired. It is, of course, no objection to a study that 
the learner is going to forget it, provided that the study has 
in itself an educational value, or lays a foundation upon which 
the learner can build further all through his after-life. If he 
fails to build, that is his own faulty and not that of his teacher 
or of his schooling. If he forgets what he knew after having 
once got an educational value out of it, what of it ? Let him 
forget it. His forgetting is no sign that his former study was 
thrown away. There is a good deal of nonsense talked and 
written on that subject. But if the thing learned is without 
educational value in itself, is an accomplishment, a technique 
of the fingers or of the vocal organs, then it is obviously a 
very grave objection to the teaching of it, if we know that the 
learner will soon forget it through lack of practice. Who 
would think it good policy to go to the trouble and expense of 
teaching our students telegraphy or type-setting if it were 
certain that nine-tenths of them would soon forget the acqui- 
sition through lack of practice ? 



TEACHING OF MODERN LANGUAGES. 27 

I conclude, then, that the educational value of learning to 
speak a foreign language is of itself very small. There can, 
however, be no doubt that language-study is one of the most 
potent educational instruments we know anything about. 
How is this ? Where does this value lie, if not in learning to 
speak the language ? Why, it lies in learning to read it. It 
lies in the deepening and broadening of the mind that come 
from the introduction to a new literature. It lies in the grad- 
ual working of one's way into the intellectual life of another 
people. It lies in the gradual taking up into one's own being 
of what has been thought and felt by the greatest of other 
lands and of other days. Or, along another line, it lies in the 
scientific study of the language itself, in the consequent train- 
ing of the reason, of the powers of observation, comparison, 
and synthesis; in short, in the up-building and strengthening 
of the scientific intellect. There are hundreds of thousands 
of people in the world to-day who cannot converse at all in 
German, in French, in Latin, or in Greek, but Avhose intellect- 
ual debt to one or all of these languages is nevertheless simply 
inestimable. For myself, I can say with perfect sincerity 
that I look upon my own ability to speak German simply as 
an accomplishment to which I attach no great importance. If 
such a thing were possible I would sell it for money, and use 
the money to buy German books with ; and it would not take 
an exorbitant price to buy it either. But, on the other hand, 
what I have got from my ability to read German, that is, my 
debt to the German genius through the German language, I 
would no more part with than I would part with my memories 
of the past, my hopes for the future, or any other integral 
portion of my soul. 

Such being my views with regard to language-study and the 
source of its value, my views as to methods of teaching a lan- 
guage will follow of themselves. The teaching of a modern 
or of an ancient language in school or college should be 
thorough and scientific. It should have as its aim to acquaint 



28 TEACHING OF MODERN LANGUAGES. 

the learner with and fix in his mind the fundamental facts of 
the language and to introduce him to its literature. In this 
way a foundation will be laid for an acquirement which the 
learner can go on perfecting and making more and more use- 
ful to himself through all his after-life. He can be perfecting 
it not simply when he has a foreigner to talk with and to bore, 
but by himself in the privacy of home, wherever and when- 
ever he can get a book to read. In the laying of this founda- 
tion a certain amount of colloquial practice is desirable. There 
are some things about a language that are needful to learn 
which can really be learned better and faster in this way than 
in any other. It is well to give some time to the memorizing 
of phrases, sentences, and idiomatic peculiarities, and to afford 
oral practice in the proper use of these. In no other way is a 
true feeling for the language, a proper Sprachgefilhl, to be ac- 
quired. But this work should not be a mere empirical imita- 
tion of the teacher or of the book. It should appeal to the 
learner's intellect, as well as store his memory and discipline 
his vocal organs. Especially should it be treated not as itself 
the end of study but as a means to an end, that end being 
linguistic and literary scholarship. 



READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY." 

/ 

BY PROFESSOR EDWARD S. JOYNES, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH 

CAROLINA. 

It is with extreme diffidence that I offer to read a paper 
before this Association. My own teaching is done under con- 
ditions of such disadvantage, with students so poorly pre- 
pared and with results so unsatisfactory, that I cannot but 
feel how presumptuous it would be in me to attempt here to 
teach those who themselves teach under so much happier con- 
ditions and to so much better purpose than I can do. My sole 
apology might be an experience which, covering now three 
decades of language-teaching, has passed through many 
phases, both of our professional activity at large and of my 
own individual Avork. But these phases, for myself person- 
ally, have been rather renewals of effort and of disappoint- 
ment than landmarks of progress or of triumph ; and this 
experience, if I could recount it, might serve rather as a warn- 
ing than as an example. So that it is as a seeker rather than 
as a giver that I come, to share my counsel with my more fa- 
vored brethren ; in order that by the confession of my own 
shortcomings, and especially by the criticism and discussion 
which this paper may elicit, I may be helped, and so per- 
chance may help others, to find "• the better way." 

I am conscious, too, that my argument is addressed not so 
much to the members of this Association, who surely need no 
advice from me, as to a wider circle of humbler teachers who 

1 Read before the Modern Language Association of America, 1880, and reprinted 
with the permission of the author. 



30 READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 

may be reached and perchance helped through this agency ; 
as from the mountain-tops may be flashed beacon-lights to 
those who are laboring in the valleys below. I therefore rec- 
ognize the fitness of the reference of this paper to the Peda- 
gogical Section, which I hope may more and more engage 
hereafter the attention and sympathy of the Association. 

In the stormier days of a controversy now happily abated, 
we have often heard the reproach made — some of us perhaps 
in our "fighting moods" have made it ourselves — against our 
brethren, the classical teachers, that the great majority of 
graduates wholly forget their Greek and Latin in after-life. 
Now, it might be answered that so ungracious a charge carries 
with it its own refutation. AVhat a man has not learned he 
cannot unlearn, nor can he forget what he has never got. 
And if, under any old-time method of classical teaching, stu- 
dents did not learn Greek and Latin, but only learned about 
them, it is not strange that they should not know, or use, or 
love, these languages in later life. Yet, after all, and at the 
worst, this charge, if true, would not prove that the methods 
of even such classical study had failed to confer discipline 
and culture of life-long benefit, even when the Latin inflec- 
tions, or the Greek alphabet itself, had been entirely forgot- 
ten. A far more serious matter it would be, however, if such 
a charge could be established against our modern languages. 
For, apart from all questions of method or of relative value 
in education, the modern languages, it seems, should at least 
be more vital — I mean in closer relation to our actual life ; 
at least comparatively more for ^ise, and less for discipline 
only; for the creation of new instruments of active power 
rather than for the mere training of faculty ; for the mani- 
fold needs of a living present rather than for even the high- 
est communion with the past. And if, under all these 
advantages, a like charge could be sustained against our 
department, it would be a far more serious imputation upon 
the value of our work, or at least upon the methods of our 
teaching. 



READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 31 

Now it is precisely this charge which 1 find myself com- 
pelled to make, against myself at least, if not against others. 
I am fully aware of the disadvantages of my own teaching, 
and of the shortcomings of my own effort and performance ; 
yet I cannot believe my experience to be wholly exceptional. 
Let me ask you to do as I have done again and again, to my 
sorrow. Try your graduates of five, ten, fifteen years ago. 
Ask them, as you meet them at commencement or elsewhere, 
how many, outside of professional scholars, "keep up" their 
French and German ? How many still read these languages ? 
How many love to read them, or would not prefer even a poor 
translation ? How many use them as instruments of research 
or information ? Into how many lives have they entered as 
an abiding presence of sweetness and light, the perpetual 
heritage of a new birth of intellectual liberty and power ? 
Or, by how many have they been disused, laid aside, forgot- 
ten or used only to read a chance quotation, and remembered 
only as associated with college tasks and the fading " dream 
of things that were " ? 

This is a hard question — here perhaps an ungracious, and 
for me, it may be, an impertinent one. But I have been ask- 
ing it for many years, and without gratifying answer. I want 
my colleagues to ask it, — if not of their graduates, at least to 
themselves ; and to all who can answer " Not guilty," the ar- 
gument of this paper does not apply. Yet, I regret to say, I 
fear that the great majority of all our graduates lay aside and 
forget their modern languages, after graduation, to a degree 
only less complete because these are perhaps less easy to for- 
get, than do classical students lay aside and forget their 
Greek and Latin. 

Now if this is true, even in any large degree, why is it 
true ? The answer I believe is the same in both cases : 
because, instead of teaching modern languages, we spend so 
much of the limited time allowed us in teaching only about 
them, or in the unprofitable pursuit of false objects by false 



32 READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 

methods ; and thus, like the dog in the stream, snatching at 
the shadow, we lose the substance and the shadow too. 

Whatever diverse views may be maintained as to the varied 
benefits of classical study, it will surely be admitted that the 
chief object of the study, say of French and German, is to 
know French and German ; and that, for the vast majority of 
all our students, the chief object of knowing them is to read 
them. 

I do not here include private instruction for special pur- 
poses or under special circumstances, but only such instruc- 
tion as, seeking '■ the greatest good of the greatest number," 
should be regularly offered in the organized classes of our 
higher institutions of learning. And of this, too, I speak 
only within what may be called strictly collegiate limits, 
meaning thereby, in a word, such study as is general for 
large classes within definite courses, and not including the 
higher special — or more strictly university — study, whose 
highest law is liberty. 

JSTow, it seems scarcely to need argument, that for this 
^[ greatest number " of all our modern language students, in 
school or college, the " greatest good " that our teaching can 
confer is the poiver to read, with — so far as possible — the 
love of reading. I think this is sufficiently indicated in the 
definition adopted by this Association, of the '' primary aims " 
of such instruction : first, " literary culture ; " and then, 
" philological scholarship and linguistic discipline." My con- 
tention is, that that which is here placed first is not only first, 
but is by far the most important, and should have far more at- 
tention, relatively, than I believe it now usually receives. 

What is the kind of reading which this '' literary culture " 
implies ? In the first place, it must be accurate reading; for 
without accuracy there can be no thorough intelligence and, 
of course, no genuine literary culture. And this accuracy 
implies sound grammatical knowledge, and precise, often mi- 
nute, grammatical criticism. But beyond that, and far beyond 



READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 33 

that, it must be reading which by practice has grown to be 
not only intelligent, accurate, appreciative, but easy and pleas- 
urable : it must be " Reading without Tears." That litera- 
ture which must be spelled out with grammar and dictionary 
is, for the nonce, not literature at all ; and will surely not be 
read, after graduation, outside of professional circles. My 
point is, we do not read enough : it is not quality, but quan- 
tity ; not depth, but range ; not knowledge only, but the ease 
of practised habit, that is left lacking in our results. Speak- 
ing not from my own unsatisfactory experience only, but 
judging so far as I can from the courses outlined in many of 
our foremost institutions, we do not read enough, not nearly 
enough, to secure that easy command of the foreign idiom and 
vocabulary, that comfortable at-homeness in the foreign at- 
mosphere, which is necessary for the appreciation of style, 
for the enjoyment of literature, or for the free and glad use 
of these languages as instruments of research, of culture, or 
of power in after life. Hence it follows that in the mod- 
ern languages, as in Greek and Latin, yet with far more lam- 
entable loss, reading is after graduation for the most part 
abandoned and forgotten ; and French and German, begun in 
school and continued in college as tasks, are remembered and 
avoided as tasks in after-life. That reading, I repeat, which 
must be done as a task, or with any distinct consciousness of 
the difficulty of a foreign idiom, will not be done at all out- 
side of professional objects. And so it is that the French and 
German literatures, witli all their wealth, all their " prom- 
ise and potency " of culture, of delight, of inspiration, of 
power, remain a dead letter in the lives of the vast major- 
ity of all our college graduates. If this is not true, I fain 
would be corrected ; but I fear it is only too true. 

If, then, this is true, the remedy is that we must read more, 
and give more prominence to reading, relatively, in our courses 
of study. And if this be recognized as the supremely impor- 
tant object to which all others are secondary, we must, per- 



34 READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 

force, Avithiu our limited time, subordinate other objects to 
which large proportions of time and attention, though of 
course in varying degrees, are now habitually devoted. 
Among them I will briefly mention : — 

I. THE FORMAL STUDV OF GRAMMAR. 

This cannot, of course, be wholly eliminated, but it should 
be reduced to a minimum. The grammar should be for the 
reading, not the reading for the grammar. Reading outside 
of grammar should be begun at the earliest possible day, with 
all needful helps ; and the further accretion of grammatical 
knowledge should be made to crystallize gradually around easy, 
interesting, and pleasurable reading. The formal learning of 
paradigms and rules may thus, I believe, be wholly omitted, 
except in largest outlines. Nothing vitalizes language study 
like reading, even the simplest, outside of grammar rules, I 
remember a boy who, after a year of grammatical study of 
Latin on the old plan in school, came during vacation under 
the teaching of his sister, a bright Virginia girl, who knew 
nothing of the scholastic method : before the end of the first 
week he exclaimed, " Golly, sister ! I believe this means some- 
thing " — a commentary only too true upon much of our gram- 
mar grinding. If I might add a word of personal experience, 
it would be that year by year, though yet far from attaining 
my ideal, I am more and more impressed with the importance 
of minimizing formal grammar study. One month of indis- 
pensable introduction I believe to be quite sufficient. After 
that, so far as possible, the grammar, like the dictionary, 
should be used as a book of reference rather than of formal 
study. (I might add, that the best grammars for this kind of 
work remain yet to be written.) The reading, thus early 
begun, should be pushed more and more ; the formal gram- 
mar, more and more subordinated. I should not need to add 
that at this stage all points of technical learning, — etymol- 
ogy, language-history, etc., except for occasional help, should 



READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 35 

be wholly omitted. Yet right here lies our temptation. It 
is so easy to waste time in displaying our own erudition ; so 
pleasant to astonish or amuse our pupils ; so hard to forget 
ourselves for their sake : so easy, in a word, to be a scholar, 
so hard to be a teacher ! 

II. EXERCISES IN SPEAKING. 

On this point I shall say but little. € fear I shall in some 
quarters be deemed guilty of high treason if I express my 
conviction of the utter worthlessness of such exercises in our 
ordinary college work. Of course, along with the tongue, the 
ear must be trained to an accurate pronunciation, and to the 
appreciation of the beauty and rhythm of the original ; for 
without this there is no language, much less literature. It 
is important, also, to be able to understand what may be 
added, for illustration or explanation, in the original tongue. 
But as for learning to speak in the college class-room, the idea 
is futile, and all the time devoted thereto is almost utterly 
wasted. Given a class, say of twenty-five to thirty members, 
with three or four hours a week, — that is five or ten minutes 
for each individual, — and all, meanwhile, reading, writing, 
speaking, thinking, dreaming English for all the remaining 
hours of day or night, and their power of intelligent speech 
in French or German would be trivial and futile, less than 
"a younger brother's revenue," even if every moment of 
time throughout the college course could be devoted to such 
exercises, to the exclusion of all other instruction. The result 
would be to leave the student, in the language of Professor 
Hewitt, "the proud possessor of a few sentences, but without 
any literary knowledge ; " or, as I have myself elsewhere said, 
"with one phrase on almost every subject, and hardly two on 
any." Whatever may be said for the so-called " natural 
method " with individual pupils, or in private classes taught 
under special conditions for special objects (and here its 
merits may be great), yet for collegiate or even school work 



36 READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 

proper it is " a delusion and a snare." Who among us has 
not witnessed the helplessness of pupils trained by this 
method for all literary or higher linguistic work ? The condi- 
tions necessary for its usefulness are simply not practicable 
in the ordinary classes of the school or college. 

III. WRITTEN COMPOSITION. 

Here the weight of ^-escription and of authority would seem 
to be so overwhelming as to render criticism at once impotent 
if not impertinent. Yet we should not forget that this pre- 
scription comes to us through the Latin, and from an age when 
the writing of Latin was the necessary accomplishment of 
every educated person ; nor that it is now less than a genera- 
tion since the like prescription in England still insisted upon 
the writing of Latin verse : so hard it is to lay aside the 
leading-strings of a past culture, even after we have outgrown 
its infancy. I would not question the indispensableness of 
writing to the mastery, or indeed even to the accurate criti- 
cism, of language ; still less would I claim that the highest 
scholarship in French or German could be attained without 
the ability to write, or even to speak, these languages. Yet 
for how many of us does this " highest scholarship " come 
within the remotest horizon of our teaching ? How many of 
all our pupils do Ave expect to learn, by our exercises, to write 
French and German with any true command of language, 
much less of style ; or, indeed, with anything beyond the most 
barren grammatical correctness ? But even within this limit, 
and far short of any real power of expression, all must admit 
the value of writing to confirm the knowledge and use of the 
grammatical forms ; to teach the force of words, the value of 
position, structure, emphasis, etc. : so that, even for thorough 
grammatical training, exercise in writing — I will not say 
composition — may fairly be claimed to be indispensable. 
This I do not deny ; my protest is against the abuse, not the 
use, of this exercise. 



READING IN IMODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 37 

I insist, first, that it is begun too early. To set a pupil to 
writing Latin or German who knoAVS nothing of reading is as 
unnatural and cruel as it is unprofitable. It reverses the 
natural order of acquisition, and makes the beginner's path, 
which should be lightened by every helpful device, literally 
a pathway of tears. Such exercise should be reserved until 
by actual use the student has acquired some considerable 
knowledge of word-form, structure, and idiom ; or, at the 
very ■ least, until a review, after the first studj^ of the 
grammar. Then, as my boy said above, it may '• mean 
something," and so become really intelligent and helpful. 

Secondli/, I contend that it is often made unduly difficult and 
burdensome, not only by being too early begun, but by being 
exaggerated beyond its proper importance, as though it were 
an end unto itself, instead of being regarded — what it really 
should be — as a help to easier and more accurate reading,^ 
At present I think I do not exaggerate when I say that this 
exercise is generally made to occupy from one-third to one- 
half, often even more, of the time given to the study of 
language, ancient or modern ; and that by unreasonable 
methods of instruction and of correction it is made also, to 
both pupil and teacher, by far the most painful and discour- 
aging as well as unprofitable part of the work. It would be a 
great gain for progress, as well as for peace and comfort, if 
this exercise could be restricted within narrower limits of 
time, and placed in its due subordination to the higher objects 
of reading and criticism. To a very large extent, indeed, its 
purposes can be better accomplished, with less loss of time, by 
writing from oral dictation — which gives, besides, the need- 
ful training of the ear, as of the attention, for the understand- 

1 I beg leave here to refer to the excellent essay of Professor Hale of the Univer- 
sity of Chicago, on "The Art of Reading Latin" (Ginn & Co.), which, though 
intended for classical teachers only, may be almost equally helpful in tlie teaching 
of modern languages. I make this reference the more freely because I cannot fully 
claim the weight of this high authority in favor of all the points of the present 
paragraph. 



38 BEADING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 

ing of the spoken language. The time that may here be 
saved, in my opinion without loss, should also be devoted to 
the supreme object of more and better reading. Indeed, I will 
go further, and venture to add that, in courses which are neces- 
sarily elementary in scope, it would be a wise economy to 
omit composition altogether. 

IV. SUBJECTS OF HIGHER OR SPECIAL STUDY. 

The foregoing remarks include subjects and methods appro- 
priate mainly to the school and the lower classes of the col- 
lege. What I shall now briefly add concerns rather the 
higher or university study. I refer to those subjects which I 
suppose to be included by this Association in its definition, — 
"philological scholarship and linguistic discipline," in addi- 
tion to " literary culture." Under these heads may perhaps 
be roughly enumerated : scientific grammar, phonetics, ety- 
mology, special and comparative, language-history, with study 
of older forms and kindred dialects, textual criticism, the 
details of literary history, and so forth. Let no one suppose 
that I undervalue the importance of these things, however 
much I may regret my own shortcomings in the learning or 
teaching of them. They are the crown of our discipline, giv- 
ing to it the dignity of a many-sided and ample science, and 
touching at many points the highest intellectual and moral 
interests of man. My only contention is, that these should 
be mainly reserved for that higher study which should be 
made rather the privilege of the few than the task of the 
many ; for the higher classes only, in our collegiate work ; 
more properly and more largely for post-graduate or university 
students : best of all, for that seminary work so admirably 
outlined by Professor White of Cornell at Philadelphia in 
1887, yet which I do not believe to be practicable, or even 
desirable, within ordinary collegiate limits. The scope of the 
subjects here included is so large and so important that they 
press with overwhelming weight upon lower classes, not yet 



READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 39 

fully prepared for such study ; and for this very reason there 
is danger lest they should prematurely usurp the lion's share 
of that limited and precious time now available for our 
courses. Such topics — of more distinctly scientific import, 
linguistic or philological — should, therefore, be mainly re- 
served for later study, or introduced into the earlier by 
glimpses only ; for illumination and inspiration, rather than as 
an added burden of work. * I make this plea, as I think, in 
the interest alike of the higher and of the lower study ; to 
leave the latter free for the pursuit of its immediate and 
more important object, and to secure for the former the 
groundwork of an adequate preparation. The premature or 
excessive introduction of these topics into early study is one 
of the most dangerous temptations of our scholarship, and is, 
in my opinion, the chief reason why so many of our students 
leave college not only unable to read French and German with 
any intelligent appreciation or pleasure, but already wearied 
and alienated by such a mistaken study not of, but about them.^ 
Such students are little likely to return to these languages 
with any zest in later life. 

I claim, then, that far more largely than is now usually the 
case, the chief work of our school and college courses in mod- 
ern languages should be reading, — large, intelligent, pleasur- 
able, sympathetic reading (wliieh must, of course, also be 

1 It is certainly true, as urged by the Nation in its review of President Lowell's ad- 
dress before this Association, that literature and language are equally worthy 
objects of study, and indeed, in their highest conception, are one. But this does 
not touch the argument of the present paper, which concerns only the relative 
weight that should be assigned to each in the (purely preparatory) work of the great 
body of our students. It is also true, as stated in another column of the same issue of 
the Xatioti, that the great mass of college graduates do not keep up the reading even of 
good English literature, — as, indeed, they do not keep up any branch of college study. 
But this is because they do not choose to do so, not because they cannot; they at 
least use English books for all needed purposes of help or information. I contend that 
they do not as a rule, even to this extent, use French or German, — and because they 
cannot — at least except as a difficult and disagreeable task. The question here is, 
moreover, something more than one of degree only. 



40 READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 

careful aud accurate reading) ; and that our chief object should 
be, for this main body of our students, to endow them with 
the power so to read these languages that they shall love to 
read them, not as a task but as a privilege, and with the 
delight of literary insight and sympathy, for all the uses of 
culture and of service, as they would read their mother tongue. 
And in order to impart this power, and, when possible, to 
kindle this love, I contend that, just so far as may be neces- 
sary, all other objects or methods should be subordinated. 
How far such subordination may be necessary is, of course, a 
question of circumstances and conditions, for which I should 
be the last to propose any unvarying rule. Such questions of 
practical pedagogy, like all other questions of intellectual or 
moral duty, are at last personal questions, which every man 
must decide for himself. 

Finally, as to the method of this reading, believing that in 
details each man must make his own methods, I will only 
remark that it should be, first, for translation. It is vain to 
decry this exercise, which is one of the most valuable in the 
whole range of education. Translation, clear, accurate, sim- 
ple, adequate yet idiomatic, is not only the best test of the 
knowledge of both idioms, but it is a work of art as well as 
of science (and, as our President has said, of conscience too), 
disciplining the highest powers of insight, skill, and taste, 
both in thought and in expression. As a training in the 
mother tongue, it is superior to all the devices of rhetoric. 
President Eliot has somewhere said, though in other and bet- 
ter words, that the power rightly to understand and to use 
the mother tongue is the consummate flower of all education. 
So we should not debar our study of modern languages from 
this high ministry, for which it is so conspicuously fitted. 
There is no other discipline incident to language-study so 
valuable as translation rightly conceived ; yet there is noth- 
ing more harmful than those miserable verbal paraphrases 
which, under the utterly false name of " literal translation," 



READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 41 

• 

are so often not only allowed but required.^ Such method is 
false alike to the foreign and to the native language. Only 
idiom can translate idiom, or style translate style. And if it 
be urged that no translation can be fully adequate, I answer 
that no otherwise can this truth be* so sharply taught, or so 
deeply felt, as by the effort to reproduce the perfect forms of 
a foreign literature in our own language : — it is only by doing 
our best that we can truly conceive the ideal and the unattain- 
able. We must insist, also, that for this American people 
there is only one mother tongue, to which all other languages 
are alike foreign, and to be studied as such, by its norms and 
largely, too, for its sake. It were better that our students 
should never know other languages than use them to debauch 
their English. I insist, then, upon the prime necessity and 
value of good translation, within appropriate limits. 

But, secondly, it is equally clear that our students should, 
finally, learn to read without translation. No one has ever 
truly read any foreign literature who has read it only through 
a translation — his own or any other. At best such reading 
is only at second hand, and, in the work of our students, is 
usually very imperfect. Translation is essential at first, as 
is the scaffolding to the building of a house ; but no house is 
finished or sightly until the scaffolding is removed. So, no 
reading is adequate until it can be understood at first hand, 
and in the form of the original. In other words, the student 
must learn to think and to feel, if not productively, at least 
receptively, in and through the foreign language. Then 
only can he truly know or feel its literature. How this trans- 
formation shall be accomplished, at what stage begun, by 

> Since the above was written, I have seen an amusing description of an old-time 
teacher who, in the lines of Horace, Epod. II., 31 : — 

" Aut trudit acres hinc et hinc multa cane 
Apros in obstantes plagas," 

insisted that multa cane should be rendered (literally!) ivith mucli dog. Some of my 
colleagues in the Association maybe surprised to learn that this style is by no means 
yet confined to the " rural districts," 



42 READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 

what methods promoted, is one of the most important ques- 
tions of our pedagogy. 1 Suffice it to say, that it implies a 
new birth of intellectual power, and that without it the best 
results of language-study are impossible. 

What to read was twenty to thirty years ago a question of 
supply. Now, thanks to the intelligent zeal of our publishers, 
it is a question of selection. Such selection might, however, 
be much aided, for remote and less-experienced teachers, if 
the publishers' catalogues gave generally, as is already done 
in some cases, a careful description of the kind of each edition ; 
whether for primary, intermediate, or advanced work. Besides 
this there is only one remark of so general application as to 
justify mention here. This is, that beyond books intended 
for the very earliest use, editions with vocabularies, except 
such as are special or technological, are not to be commended. 
These vocabularies, unless very elaborate, and then expensive, 
are apt to be incomplete, or at least limited in scope. But 
even the best is only a poor substitute for a good dictionary, 
the essential feature being, usually, that the student is helped 
to the required meaning, instead of having to select it for 
himself. Such spoon-diet is proper only as " milk for babes." 
Beyond babyhood, the student should be trained to the right 
use of the dictionary, as well as of the grammar and other 
sources of information. This remark has seemed to be justi- 
fied here by the increasing number of such labor-saving editions 
" with vocabulary." 

And now, having detained you already too long, I ask to be 
indulged in a few words more. During more than twenty 
years of active work as a teacher of modern languages, I have 
seen our profession pass through many phases. At first we 
were fighting for a bare recognition in the scheme of liberal 
study. This victory won, we had then to witness the war of 

1 Again I take the liberty of referring to Professor Hale's " Essay on the Art of 
Reading Latin," which I most gladly commend to all teachers of modern language. 



READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 43 

" methods," until we are now, I trust, hai^pily past that stage 
of our progress. As I review the scene of so much discussion 
and experiment, and look forward to the bright promise of the 
new day, which I have lived to welcome, if not to enjoy, there 
seem to me to be two tendencies — two remaining perils — on 
which I may be permitted to add a word of experience and of 
warning. The first is tlie bread-and-butter theory. This, I 
hope, may be here briefly dismissed. Bread is indispensable, 
and butter, however thin, is to most of us a very acceptable 
addition. But these are not recognized by this Association, 
and should not be recognized by ourselves professionally, as 
among the primary and direct objects of our work. However 
the learning of modern languages may be made to serve this 
necessary and worthy purpose in private classes, in summer 
schools, or under other arrangements for special objects, we 
must see to it that such views shall not usurp a leading place 
in our institutions of higher learning. In the purview of our 
teaching, the life must be more than meat, and the body more 
than raiment. On this point, I am sure, it is not necessary 
here to insist. 

The danger which I more fear, just now, comes from the 
opposite direction — from the excess of what I cannot better 
describe than as erudition in the school room. I refer to the 
tendency — I fear the growing tendency — to obtrude the meth- 
ods and requirements of erudite or special study into our ele- 
mentary teaching and text-books. This may be at present 
only a wholesome reaction from former more trivial methods 
— the lustiness of a giant only lately liberated from chains; 
but it indicates a peril which, if not arrested by sound reason, 
will be hurtful alike to the thoroughness and to the modesty of 
true scholarship. The field of this danger lies less within the 
scope of this Association than in the lower schools ; but the 
warning, if at all justified, is not the less appropriate here, 
because to the members of this Association the humbler teach- 
ers will naturally look for the standards as well as the instru- 



44 READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 

ments of their work. The time was, and not very long ago, 
when we made this reproach against the classicists. Yet now, 
by strange reaction, we see them seeking, more and more, 
better and more reasonable methods, and producing easier and 
more teachable text-books ; while we, on our part, seem to be 
hastening to occupy the cloudy eminence which they are wisely 
trying to vacate. In this tendency I see a real danger to 
modern language study. In the pride of a triumphant scholar- 
ship we forget the requirements of a reasonable pedagogy; 
or, from the standpoint of another native tongue, we forget or 
ignore the needs of the English pupil ; — or we fail clearly to 
draw the line between the critical work of the advanced student 
and the wants of the untrained beginner. I see these indica- 
tions in some of our modern books ; and I must infer that 
they exist also in many of our class-rooms. I do not by any 
means despise erudition, or critical scholarship, or critical 
teaching ; but they have their place, as they have their value. 
We must draw the line clearly and broadly, in our editing as 
well as in our teaching, between advanced and elementary 
work ; or we shall soon have no good school books, and no 
good schools. If by the premature and injudicious obtrusion 
of learned methods or results we make the beginnings of 
modern language study harsh and repulsive, we shall under- 
mine the foundations of our discipline, and shall then vainly 
attempt to build any worthy superstructure. Let us resist the 
temptations of intellectual pride. Let us remember that in 
teaching, if anywhere, ars est celare artem ; — that the highest 
triumph of erudition, in the school book or in the school room, 
is in the most masterful helpfulness ; and that he who would 
lead the children of knowledge, as of faith, must himself 
become as a little child. 



THE NATURAL METHOD.^ 



PROFESSOR W. T. TIEWETT, CORNELL UNIVERSITY. 

The advocates of the " natural" method of teaching mod- 
ern languages have apparently captured the citadel of the 
argument by the name which they have chosen for their sys- 
tem, and the question arises, — What is the natural method of 
teaching or acquiring language ? 

The answer is : " Learn a language as a child learns its 
mother tongue." If tliis statement embodies the essence of 
this mode of instruction, we must ask what is the process by 
which a child learns to speak ? It is surrounded by the 
speech of its country. There is no blurring or obscuring of 
impressions : one sound and only one is associated with every 
object or action. The child assigns a certain meaning to a 
tone of the voice before it knows a single word. By the appli- 
cation of certain sounds to particular things it learns the 
names of persons and of objects. By repetition memory fixes 
the sound as the representative of an idea. Words of de- 
scription introduce the notion of quality, of good and bad, of 
color, heat, and size. Verbs of incomplete predication, and 
picture-words, give the idea of actions, and the relations of 
substance and quality. The conception of time follows, and 
adverbs indicate the mode of verbal action. Nouns as the 
objects of verbs and prepositions follow. The child passes 
from the generic to the specific, from applying a single term 
to all animals, to discriminating the characteristics of each. 

1 Reprinted from the Academy, Dec. 1886, with the permission of the publisher. 



46 THE NATURAL METHOD. 

Terms descriptive of physical objects are broadened in mean- 
ing to have a secondary and spiritual signification. Many 
expressions in the vocabulary of both the child and the man 
have been learned without even truly analyzing them. Stere- 
otyped, hereditary forms are adopted without any conscious 
mental action. This is, in brief, the process of the child's de- 
velopment in language in its own home and country. But 
the condition of pupils who begin the study of a foreign lan- 
guage in this country is different. They already possess a 
vocabulary fixed in the memory ; every Avord suggests at once 
an object or action or quality. The mind is full of the images 
of things. The steps of the child's development cannot be 
repeated exactly in later study. The process must be differ- 
ent, — new names must be associated with familiar things ; 
terms in part arbitrary and in part natural must be acquired, 
so that they come at command at the sight of the object ; or 
kindred words in a changed form must be learned. The child 
must at the same time retain and constantly use all its former 
store of words. It cannot be transported into a foreign world 
for more than an hour or two a day, or a few hours a week. 
The years through which a child grows into the life and 
spirit of its mother tongue, attaining even then but a limited 
vocabulary, cannot be repeated. More rapid results are pos- 
sible, and methods corresponding to the awakened powers of 
the child must be employed. 

The ''natural" method, strictly followed, would require 
that all instruction should be oral, by objects and by forms 
presented to the eye. But in advanced instruction we can- 
not stop here ; other methods must be employed to keep pace 
with the mind's expansion and its developed powers. We 
should ignore most important methods of training in use in 
the acquisition of other branches of knowledge, if we stopped 
with the oral, or " natural " method. That method is alone 
natural which takes cognizance of a pupil's surroundings, his 
purposes in life, his object in acquiring the language, and his 



, THE NATURAL METHOD. 47 

intellectual capabilities in learning. The mind generalizes ; 
the principles of language admit of condensed statement ; the 
facts must be grouped in rules which enunciate the usages 
of the language, if they are to be retained. Systematic gram- 
mar is necessary, and language must be studied as the em- 
bodiment of thought, the philosophy of expression, in order 
to secure the highest culture. The mode in which a thought 
is conceived, the subtle influence of particles, prefixes, and 
suffixes, must form a part of the training in language. Lan- 
guage thus studied affords a valuable discipline, and indirectly 
prepares the way for the study of logic and philosophy. 

What is natural at one period of life is not natural, in the 
sense of being adapted, to all periods of study. The scholar 
of disciplined mind who seeks to master a language by the 
natural method alone, would make limited progress. The 
gift of generalization, of comparison of forms, and of insight 
into kindred words, would be sacrificed by adopting the 
method of the child. The scientific method of teaching 
language requires that all the powers should be enlisted in 
the work. Hence any exclusive system will fail to accomplish 
the highest results, and Avill overlook essential facts of intel- 
lectual growth. That method which evokes all the powers of 
the pupil's mind is the best ; the ear, the voice, and the eye 
must alike be taught, and this triple object must be kept in 
view throughout the course. Analogy is a suggestive and 
ever-active principle in the acquisition of language ; and a 
knowledge of related words, inflections, and principles in one 
language facilitates the mastery of every other. A knowledge 
of Latin is a key to the attainment of all the Romance lan- 
guages ; but only a clear and comprehensive knowledge of its 
words and forms will facilitate an acquaintance with the 
derivative tongues. A superficial, speaking knowledge of 
German does not contribute to the knowledge of Anglo-Saxon 
and of English speech, while a scientific knowledge is a most 
valuable aid. A defect of the so-called " natural " method is 



48 THE NATtJEAL METHOD. "^ 

that it appeals to the memory exclusively, and, unless supple- 
mented by other methods, leaves the student with a bare 
knowledge of the idioms taught, but destitute of the principles 
and analogies of the language, beyond those imparted by oral 
practice. Students so taught are often deficient in a systematic 
knowledge of the inflections, and their subsequent progress is 
less thorough than that of pupils who have been trained by 
established methods. 

The culture of the memory alone never made a great scholar : 
a knowledge of several languages learned familiarly where 
they are spoken, fails in itself to give intellectual culture. 
The knowledge of German possessed by the children of Ger- 
man parents, born in this country, is often an obstacle to the 
thorough study of their native tongue. A facility in phrases 
is often accompanied by a real failure to discriminate properly 
the meaning of words in English. Those delicate distinctions 
in thought existing in a language are often lost in the case 
of students to whom both languages are alike. One language 
seems to displace the other, as Hamerton holds, and to make 
the possessor insensible to subtle shades of meaning. Even 
in the case of great scholars who seem to know equally the 
language and literature of two nations, the idioms of one 
language are often transferred unconsciously to the other. 
If we examine the results achieved by American students 
who have resided abroad, we are confirmed in our view of the 
limited value of the acquisition of a language mainly by in- 
tercourse, without thorough systematic study. Many who 
have taken a degree at a foreign university, and mingled 
intimately with the people, but who have devoted themselves 
to pursuits other than the language itself, have acquired only 
an uncertain facility in speaking and writing. If this is the 
case with students who have resided abroad, being daily in a 
foreign atmosphere, hearing in lectures and conversation only 
the language of the country, it is true by a stronger reasoning 
of pupils in this country who enjoy but an hour or two of 



THE NATURAL METHOD. 49 

instruction per day in a foreign language, and speak and write 
and think the remainder of the time in English. Students 
study the modern languages mainly for an acquaintance with 
the literature ; the time which can be devoted to it is limited. 
If all the available time were consumed in studying by the 
oral method, a knowledge of the literature, and the discipline 
which comes from thorough study of the language, would be 
lost. A teacher who employed exclusively the oral method 
would fail to call into exercise some of the highest powers of 
the pupil, and the results would be meagre and unsatisfying. 
The oral method should be assigned to its true place. It is 
an important and valuable aid in training the ear to under- 
stand the spoken language, and the organs of speech to pro- 
nounce correctly. Translation at hearing is an admirable 
accompaniment of linguistic instruction, and should be prac- 
tised constantly in the study of language. If familiar expla- 
nations and lectures in the language itself are given, it will 
form a useful auxiliary to any course. 

It is fallacious to hope to impart to all students the ability 
to speak a foreign language fluently. Few would have occa- 
sion to use the language if acquired. It is therefore unwise 
to insist upon a speaking knowledge as the end of the study. 
It is a valuable aid in the mastery of grammatical forms, and 
a key to a facile acquaintance with the literature. Indeed, a 
true appreciation of poetry, as well as its expression, is im- 
possible without the feeling which comes from an inner knowl- 
edge of the spirit as well as of the sounds of the language. 

The manifest merit of the natural method should not be 
obscured by the exclusive claim that it is a substitute for, 
and should displace other recognized and approved systems 
of instruction. As an accompaniment of higher study, it 
will perform a useful and possibly indispensable office. 



These notes are simply what they are called, — notes of the writer's experi- 
ence in teaching French.* The methods suggested for the various 
parts of the work may not be the best; they can certainly be im- 
proved on ; hut they have proved fruitful of good results, and have 
been adopted by some other teachers with equal success. 



NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 

BT PROFESSOR F. C. DE SUMICHRAST, HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 

IK general; the teacher; pronunciation; ground-work; 
sight-reading; composition; memorizing; dictation; speak- 
ing FRENCH; conversation CLASSES; CLASSIC WRITERS. 

IN GENERAL. 

Few changes in education are more striking than the growth 
and development of the study of modern languages. The time 
has long since gone by when Latin was practically the only 
medium of intercommunication between learned men in differ- 
ent branches of knowledge ; when philosophers, theologians, 
and scientists made use of the language of Cicero to commu- 
nicate to each other their discoveries or their opinions. A 
common language does not at present exist ; whether it ever 
will do so is a question which may be left out of consideration 
for the moment. It is plain that, with the strong patriotic 
feeling exhibited by the great nations of the world, neither 
English, German, nor French will be universally accepted as 
the language of general intercourse. A student of the present 
day who desires to be thoroughly equipped, must therefore 
possess more than an elementary knowledge ; he must have a 
good command of those foreign languages in which so many 
and so valuable works have been and are being produced. 

This alone, to say nothing of the splendor of French litera- 
ture in past centuries, must compel attention to the importa.nce 

Copyright, 1892, F. C. de Sumichrast. 



NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 51 

of the methods employed in teaching the language. The old 
system of spending a very long time in picking out, word by 
word, the sense of a short passage, selected generally from a 
somewhat tedious and uninteresting work, — tedious and un- 
interesting precisely because it was not studied or treated in 
the way that its merits demanded, — could not possibly induce 
men to pursue their studies with anything like the enthusiasm 
that must be excited if rapid and satisfactory progress is to 
be made. 

To know French, — and in these notes it is French simply 
that will be treated of, — to know French is not simply to be 
acquainted with the elements of the grammar, and to have 
read, with more or less trouble and difficulty, one or two texts 
selected from the many treasures which the literature of France 
possesses ; but it is to have a real acquaintance with the genius 
and forms of the language ; to penetrate into the spirit of the 
literature ; to become familiar with the modes of thought and 
the manner of expressing them ; to feel, in a word, that instead 
of a hesitating progress, such as that of a child tottering in 
his walk, one's onward march is firm and decided as that of 
the grown man who presses forward to a distinct^ clearly 
defined goal. 

There are, broadly speaking, two ways in which the study 
of the French language may be conducted. The one which 
has just been alluded to consists in minute and over-careful 
attention to every detail from the very outset, demanding an 
accurate comprehension of every point as it comes up. This 
method assumes that in the acquisition of the French lan- 
guage the intellect is capable of doing what it absolutely 
refuses to do in any other branch of knowledge. In none 
would it find it possible to grasp at once, fully and com- 
pletely, and to retain permanently, every detail as it presents 
itself. 

The other method is intended to lead the student to an ac- 
quaintance with the language, such as that of the child when 



0- NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH, 

it first begins to learn '^ords. to distiuguisli things, and to give 
them names. The idea which nnderlies this theory is a cap- 
tivating one. Its very simplicity attracts sympathy and ap- 
proval, and at first sight it seems as though it vrere the 
one right and proper mode of imparting a knowledge of the 
French tongue in a manner which will be at once agreeable 
and effectual. It is not. however, capable of fulfilling all that 
is claimed for or expected of it. The child learning to lisp 
its own mother tongue is a different being intellectually from 
the student whose mind has been more or less tlioroughly 
trained, and Avho is capable of very much greater effort ; who 
understands the value of time ; who is anxious to progress ; 
who wishes to become master of the language in as short a 
time as possible. 

Any system which aims at thorough teaching of French, 
which seeks to combine simplicity of method with accuracy 
of knowledge and rapidit}* of grasp, cannot leave out of sight 
the facts that the grammar bears a most important relation 
to the language ; that the literature is, after all, the one great 
treasure-house which must be opened to the student ; that the 
best teachers will be the great writers, classical and modern ; 
that the student's vocabul^y will be most usefully and most 
rapidly enlarged by the perusal of numerous works by the 
best authors. 

Another point is. that precisely the same course cannot 
be followed in its entirety- with every learner. Purposes are 
different. Some may wish to acquire simply reading knowl- 
edge : others to add to this some slight conversational facility, 
to be developed subsequently by residence in France, or inter- 
course with French people. Others, again, are anxious to 
make a thorough study of the language, and to become fully 
acquainted with its resources and riches. 

Taking, then, the grammar as the basis of the work, the 
question arises. How should that grammar be taught ? The 
use of a text-book becomes a* necessity, and of text-books 



KOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 53 

there is, of course, no end. Admirable grammars in the 
French language are to be had quite easily. Very good 
grammars written in English, Methods or Courses of greater 
or less excellence, to say nothing of the very numerous books 
which are mere collections of clippings from other works — 
are ready to tlie hand ; and it would seem as though every 
possible system had been tried by wliich an acquisition of the 
elements of the language might be facilitated. And yet, 
while recognizing the value of many books which have become 
standard in educational institutions, teachers and students 
alike are forced to recognize the fact that of all the gram- 
mars or methods published, there is not yet one the author 
of which has grasped the principle which must underlie any 
grammatical text-book intended to be used by Americans or 
Englishmen in the study of French. The general plan of the 
grannuai'S, properly so called, is simply that on which gram- 
mars written for French pupils are constructed. Chapters on 
the article, the substantive, the adjective, the pronoun, the verb, 
the adverb, the preposition, the conjunction, and the interjec- 
tion, follow each other in regular procession, as a pi-eface to 
that body of rules which, with its not infrequent exceptions, 
forms the French syntax. The Methods do not, as a ride, 
conform strictly to this arrangement, although they also begin 
with that old friend, the article, which, from being placed in 
the very fore front of the instruction, assumes an importance 
which certainly should never have belonged to it ; a fact 
so well recognized by students in general, that they very 
speedily forget all they learned about the combinations of the 
article and the preposition, and even when far advanced in 
their studies continue to translate literally ''of the" and "to 
the " by de le, a le. de les and a les. A further fault of 
^lethods, probably inseparable from the plan, is that a certain 
difficulty is experienced in referring to particular rules re- 
quired to elucidate difficulties which must constantly present 
themselves to an English-speaking student. 



54 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FKENCH. 

The fact that it is English-speakiug people -who are to be 
taught the French language, gives the key to the true method 
of teaching. 

This will be better understood, perhaps, by an illustration 
taken from actual practice in teaching. 

A constant stumbling-block to English-speaking students is 
the agreement of the article and adjective with the substan- 
tive in French. Theoreficalh/, the rule is alike in both lan- 
guages ; 2^nicficani/. there is nothing in English to show the 
agreement. In other words, the substantive in French has 
a visible effect upon article and adjective ; it h-as no?ie in 
English. This is an important difference, which must be 
taught at the outset ; and the plan adopted by the writer is as 
follows : — 

On the blackboard are written two English substantives : — 
Boy. Girl. 

and the class informs the teacher that the first is masculine 
singular, and the second feminine singular. 

Below each is then written the French word : — 

Gargon. FlUe. 

and the class is then asked to supply a definite article for 
each noun : — 

The boy. The girl. 

Attention is at once drawn to the fact that the form of the 
article is identical in each case ; then the French comes : — 

The boy, The girl, 

Le gar(^on. La Jille. 

A difference in form : impossible to mistake one for the 
other. Add an adjective, say •• good : " — 

The good boy. The good girl. 



NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 55 

No difference in the fonn of the adjective, any more than in 
that of the article ; but note the French : — 

The good boy, The good girl, 

Le bon garden. La bonne Jille. 

Here again the adjective changes its form and clearly indi- 
cates the gender. 

Now comes number. The rule in both languages is alike : 
add s for the plural (exceptions disregarded at the outset) ; 

so : — 

Boys, Girls, 

Gar<^ons. Filles. 

Add first the article and next the adjective, and the English 
shows no change whatever in these words, although they are 
plural ; but the French plainly indicates difference in gender 
and number : — 

The good boys. The good girls, 

Les bons gar<;ons. Les bonnes filles. 

The fact can now be, is now impressed upon the student 
that the agreement of the article and the adjective with the 
substantive means something visible in French, — an operation 
to be performed ; a change to be effected. And the lesson is 
repeated with the possessive adjective, the demonstrative, the 
interrogative, and, again, with the pronoun, whether personal, 
possessive, demonstrative, or relative ; and the idea sinks into 
the mind and stays there. 

This is not a grammar, or a method either, else it would be 
proper to show how many points can thus be made clear and 
striking. Besides, they will readily occur to any one familiar 
with both tongues and teaching them. The supposedly ter- 
rible French ''irregular" verb can be stripped of its terrors 
even more emphatically. 

The grammar of the language must be learned in conjunction 
■with as large a number as possible of words in common use, in 



56 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 

order to form a vocabulary by means of which the student will 
in a comparatively short space of time be enabled not merely 
to read ordinary French with facility but to translate English 
into French, and, at no distant time, to express directly in 
French the thoughts which he wishes to utter. The two lan- 
guages, English and French, are not only dissimilar in their 
origin ; they are essentially distinct in their genius and modes 
of expression. What is important in the one is less so in the 
other. The English-speaking student employs, naturally, the 
modes of thought and of expression which he has learned 
from childhood, and these differ so greatly from the French 
that, u.nless the fact is borne in mind constantly in the course 
of teaching, it is not French that will be given, but a bastard 
dialect which has nothing whatever to recommend it save an 
occasional quaint turn or absurd mistranslation. 

To teach French as it should be taught necessarily involves 
on the part of the teacher a thorough knowledge of both tongues. 
How else is he to seize the characteristic points of each, and 
to present them cle_arly and definitely, so that they may be 
readily grasped by the intelligence of his students ? The 
object, then, is to dwell leas upon those points of grammar 
which are alike in the two languages, than to impress strongly 
the diiferences, so that the characteristic features of the lan- 
guage will be thoroughly learned, and become part and parcel 
of the intellectual stock-in-trade of the student, which he can 
call upon readily at anytime without fear of becoming obscure 
or unintelligible. This is the very basis of successful teaching 
which aims at bringing on a pupil rapidly, while grounding 
him thoroughly. Every part of the work may be turned to 
advantage in this respect ; not merely those grammatical exer- 
cises which are necessary to impress upon the mind the 
particular points they illustrate, but such spoken sentences, 
such ordinary expressions, as may, and indeed should, be used 
from the outset to accustom the ear and the understanding 
9,like to the different language which it is seeking to acquire. 



NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 57 

And also the reading of French itself, which should never be 
made an unpleasant, ungrateful task, involving an amount of 
labor which simply destroys any possible interest in the work 
itself, — not that French, any more than anything else, can be 
acquired without labor and dilRculty ; but what is meant is 
that mere labor for labor's sake should not be allowed to pre- 
vail in the system pursued ; that it should be definitely kept 
in view that the work is to bring results encouraging to the 
student ; for no matter how excellent the teacher, how thor- 
oughly equipped, how interesting in his illustrations, how 
clear and precise in his expressions, it is not he who is to 
acquire the language, it is not he who can put it into the 
mind of the learner, but it is that learner who must by his 
own work make himself the possessor of the stores of knowl- 
edge presented to him. 

THE TEACHER. 

It has been said above that " to teach French as it should 
be taught necessarily involves on the part of the teacher a 
thorough knowledge of both tongues." This point is worth 
considering a little more fully. 

Macaulay says, in effect, that no man can ever acquire a 
foreign language perfectly ; experience proves the contrary. 
It is possible to know two languages thoroughly, and, given a 
good "ear," to pronounce in both accurately. But perfect 
pronunciation of the language to be taught is a necessity ; one 
may sin in English, but not in French. Here is a difiiculty 
in the way of American teachers ; a serious one. Here is now 
a difficulty in the way of foreign born teachers, — imperfect 
knowledge of English, and consequent confusion in explana- 
tions given in that tongue. 

Which is the better, then, the American or the French born 
teacher ? The odds are now, and always will be, in favor of 
the latter, provided he knows English well, so as to under- 
stand the spirit of the language, and to make plain, quite plaiu^ 



58 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 

his meaning when, perforce, his explanations must be given in 
English. But if an American has really mastered French, 
and by a residence abroad has succeeded in speaking it fluently 
and pronouncing it correctly, he is the equal of the Frenchman 
for all that part of the work which does not include literature. 
The spirit of the literature is not to be so easily appropriated. 

Too strong a warning can scarcely be given to Frenchmen 
who, because they know, as the saying is, their mother tongue, 
imagine they can teach it, and readily seek and obtain positions 
in which they at least have a chance of learning English, if 
they do not teach much French. An intelligent knowledge 
of English is a reqidsite. 

But, on the other hand, the fact that a man is an American 
gives him absolutely no advantage over the foreigner, so far as 
handling a class goes, or in the placing himself en rapport with 
the students. These gifts do not pertain to any one national- 
ity, and an American may prove a flat failure as well as a 
foreigner. The only advantage he has, if it be one, is that he 
can talk English easily ; and when troubled with his acquired 
French can take refuge in that ; but the student suffers more 
retardation in his progress from good English than from good 
French, and the foreigner can at least talk that. 

In brief, the question of nationality has absolutely no 
business in this matter ; personal fitness alone should be the 
test. 

The business of the teacher is strictly that of helper, espe- 
cially in the beginnings of the study. He can only make plain, 
but that he must do, whatever presents any difficulty ; he can 
only intelligently discuss whatever points present themselves 
to his mind or that of the pupils ; he can only show how best 
to attack and solve a particular problem, indicate why certain 
turns, certain forms, are used in preference to others ; he must 
remove from the minds of the students that very absurd but 
deep-rooted belief that every foreign language should in all 
respects conform to the structure of English, and that where 



NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FKENCH. 59 

differences occur, as occur of course they must, there is some- 
thing radically wrong about that foreign language. Whatever 
is essentially different between the two must be dwelt upon 
and nuide absolutely clear. In a word, the teacher must strive 
from the outset to make the learners understand the genius 
of the language, and induce them, by every means in his power, 
to become as familiar as may be with it. This method, if 
conscientiously, carefully, and diligently pursued, will, in every 
case, result not only in a rapidity of progress fairly astonish- 
ing to adherents of the older methods, but in a much more 
intimate acquaintance with, and a greater grasp of, the forms 
peculiar to French than is possible in any other way. This 
grammatical teaching must be done, as has been observed, not 
only by intelligent explanation, — repeated as often as is neces- 
sary, and that will always be oftener than most teachers think 
it necessary, — but by careful reading and writing of exercises 
by the "pupils. There is nothing which so firmly impresses a 
point on the mind as a written exercise upon it, and nothing 
which will enable the pupil to make satisfactory progress more 
than attention on the part of the teacher to the correctness of 
that written work. This, no doubt, involves on his part an 
amount of labor which, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, 
will be considered useless drudgery ; but it is not : it is a ne- 
cessary part of the business, which must be done as faithfully 
as another. It is not showy, it is not interesting perhaps ; but 
it is of the utmost importance that the student should not be 
permitted to carry away uncorrected work, if by any means 
within the power of the teacher that work can be made per- 
fect. Besides, every instructor of experience will agree that 
the mistakes of the students are the helps of the teacher. 

A man most thoroughly at home in two or more languages, 
and such men are by no means rare, may not always recognize 
at the first glance the peculiar difficulties which a learner has 
to contend with ; what to him is exceedingly simple and plain, 
may be, and very likely is, exceedingly obscure and difficult to 



60 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 

another; and it is ouly by constant study of the errors com- 
mitted by students that the teacher can perfect himself in the 
work he has undertaken. If, therefore, he avoids the study of 
those mistakes, whether made in recitation or in written exer- 
cises, he voluntarily casts away a most important means of 
promoting his own success. 

PRONUNCIATION. 

Reading must, or should, be taken up almost at the begin- 
ning, and here, of course, a very grave difficulty presents itself, 
that of pronunciation. Most grammars and Methods prepared 
for use in American or British colleges and schools contain a 
prefatory chapter purporting to give, approximately at all 
events, the pronunciation of French sounds. No doubt a 
demand has arisen for some such help to those who are unable 
to obtain the pronunciatioTi from some one well qualified, but 
a moment's reflection will show the hopelessness of attempting 
to learn or teach pronunciation by such means. If all persons 
were equally trained to speak their own language, English, for 
instance, correctly and properly, and if, in addition, they all 
possessed the power of distinguishing differences of sound, 
which are as marked to the trained ear as difference of notes 
in music; and if, further, combinations of English letters could 
always be relied on to give exactly the same sound, then pro- 
nunciation could be taught by such means ; or if BeU's " Visible 
Speech " were universally employed in all schools and colleges 
as an available and additional aid to the teaching of languages, 
it would be easy to print directions which, carefully followed, 
would enable the student to pronounce French correctly ; but 
facts are all the other way. Of the thousands of students who 
annually begin the study of a foreign language, a very large 
proportion pronounce their mother tongue in a most peculiar 
manner. The ear has to be trained, and the learner has to be 
rid of another idea commonly implanted in his brain, — that 
because a language is foreign it must be, necessarily, intricate 



NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 61 

in its pronunciation. Practically, unless the vocal organs or 
the "ear " of an individual are defective, there should be no 
difficulty in any one pronouncing correctly any ordinary modern 
language, leaving out of the question that characteristic tone 
which we call the accent, and which betrays so quickly the 
mother-tongue of the speaker. 

Pronunciation, therefore, must be taught at present orally, 
if it is to approximate to the correct sound; and it is well 
worth while spending some little time on this point, in order 
to encourage the learner to make use of sounds with which he 
is somewhat unfamiliar, and to break down that wide-spread 
objection to hearing one's self make mistakes. Still, for those 
who merely desire a reading knowledge, as well as for those 
who wish to speak the language, there is no necessity for 
dwelling at too great length at the outset upon the obtaining 
of a correct pronunciation ; that is only a matter of time : it is 
little by little that the new sounds will be acquired and pro- 
nounced fluently. Much reading aloud is desirable, but still 
more desirable is a great deal of reading, of that reading which 
will furnish the student with a varied and useful vocabulary, 
and make him acquainted with turns of expression, with forms 
of phrase, with syntactical constructions, and idiomatic com- 
binations, Reading not carried on in microscopic fashion by 
carefully turning up every word in the dictionary, but based 
upon the fact that there are many words identical, or nearly 
so, in form and meaning in both languages, thanks to that 
long intercourse between England and France which brought 
about, in the language of the former country, the use of many 
French words, or of words derived from the Latin through the 
French. 

SIGHT-READING. — COMPOSITION. 

Sight-reading, in short, is what must be aimed at quite early. 
Even if the instructor has to explain many a locution and 
many a word, he must first and foremost interest his students ; 



62 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 

he must create in them a desire to know more ; and for that 
purpose he must not keep them dwelling upon any one point 
so long that their attention lags through fatigue. There exist 
in French works enough of the character particularly suited 
to this plan of study, works which can be put into the hands 
of young people with the utmost safety, and which they will 
enjoy, because to the interest of the story itself is added the 
charm of that artistic style for which French writers are 
noted above all others, and which makes itself felt even by 
those who cannot fully appreciate the beauties of the work 
they are studying. 

This is no mere hypothesis, no mere theory, but the result 
of experience. Students do begin the study of French with- 
out knowing a word of the language, without having the faint- 
est notion of its genius or construction, who, in the brief space 
of four months, are able to translate at sight a piece of or- 
dinary French ; are able to follow intelligently the reading, 
by an instructor, of a French book which they have not pre- 
viously opened ; and who, before their first year of study has 
elapsed, can of themselves enjoy the perusal of many charm- 
ing stories Avhich, under the old plan of carefully digging 
out and polishing every word, with the assistance of that 
frequently misleading authority, the dictionary, would have 
remained closed to them for many years ; would, indeed, have 
never been sought by them, because long before they could 
have acquired any facility in reading, they would have been 
disgusted and driven from the study by the numerous obstacles 
and difficulties that presented themselves. Let it be remem- 
bered, also, that with the acquisition of a vocabulary of French 
words, with the familiarity thus gained with French idioms 
and constructions, comes naturally the power of constructing 
in good French what one has to say. The translation of 
English into French, or French composition as it is usually 
called, should also be carried on on similar principles, though 
here, of course, the effort required will be a harder one, and 



NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 63 

the progress cannot be expected to be quite as rapid ; for there 
is great difficulty in persuading students to abandon the use 
of those forms to wliich they are wedded from childhood for 
those which are new to them, and the vigor and force of which 
they neither grasp nor appreciate readily. But after a time 
it will be found, if the system of carefully explaining on every 
occasion the essential differences between the two languages 
is followed, that it is possible to do in French composition 
what has been done already in French reading ; namely, to 
take an English work and translate it at sight into good 
French. Such a result should be attained with college 
students of ordinary intelligence, willing to give up a suffi- 
cient amount of time to the preparation of their work, in the 
course of a couple of years. By this time their reading of 
French books should have made them familiar with a large 
number of the simpler works of good authors, and they should 
be prepared to enter upon the study of the literature as a lit- 
erature with just as much interest as they would take in the 
literature of their own language ; feeling themselves capable 
of understanding intelligently a lecture delivered in French, 
or of following readily the reading of a play, an oration, or a 
discourse, and of perceiving the beauties which the classic age 
of French literature, the philosophical period of the eighteenth 
century, and the splendid cycle of the nineteenth, present, 

GROUNDWORK. 

Qiii trop embrasse, mal etrelnt. If a student is to learn 
French, let not the whole grammar, accidence, and syntax, all 
the idioms of the language, all the difficulties of pronunciation 
be poured into him at once. The fault of many grammars, 
methods, introductions, and teachers, is a desire to be erudite 
and to show how much the author or instructor knows. There 
are even some of the latter who would feel unhappy if they 
were inhibited from exhibiting their scholarship. 

Enough is enough, and too much should never be expected 



64 NOTES ON THE TEACHIKG OF FRENCH. 

or asked of a pupil, young or old. If in the course of two 
years in a preparatory school, or of one year in college (stu- 
dents more mature and capable of being driven harder), a solid 
groundwork has been laid, success has been attained. The 
knowledge of broad outlines, the main points of the gram- 
matical structure of the language, a moderate but well-acquired 
vocabulary, the power to understand easy spoken Erench, the 
ability to compose in simplest French, these are the points to 
be sought after, the ends to be attained. In succeeding years 
it is easy to build up on such a foundation ; to add, progres- 
sively, needed details ; to fill in the outline, and to make the 
pupil know French, that is, use it easily. 

It is desirable to avoid excess of detail at first, and yet it 
is this excess of detail that is most noticeable in text-books. 
It is of very little practical importance to place before the 
beginner all the varieties of use of the preposition de, for 
instance; or all the exceptions to the general rule for the 
formation of the plural of substantives ; or long lists of 
adjectives, the feminine of which is irregular; or, finally, 
pages of verbs, most of which he will not come across more 
tha,n once or twice, if at all, during his first year or two of 
study. It simply bothers and torments a student to have a 
number of forms and rules set before him which he can neither 
understand, digest, nor remember. Elementary work should 
be elementary ; free from all trace of erudition ; free from all 
that is not absolutely necessary. 

To illustrate : A beginner in French is in the same condi- 
tion as a stranger dropped by train or steamer in one of our 
large cities. He starts out from his hotel for a walk, goes 
through a number of streets, notices only a few, a very few, of 
the principal buildings and monuments, and usually cannot 
quite tell how he got from one point to another. The second 
day he marks some points near his hotel, gets a better idea of 
the lay of the city ; in the course of a week he knows the 
main thoroughfares, and probably does not board too often the 



NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 65 

wrong street-car. But if he becomes a resident, it takes him 
still a good deal of time .before he is quite familiar with the 
highways and byways of the place, before he learns the short 
cuts, and gets to know the best stores. He acquires his knowl- 
edge progressively, and would be very much amused were he 
furnished with a map and directory, and told to get up all the 
streets and most of the addresses before venturing out ; or 
even were he told it was necessary for him to know the names 
of all the residents in the street he inhabits. 

Few rules, therefore, should be given a learner at the outset. 
Text-books crammed full of information are favored by insuf- 
ficiently prepared or indifferent and lazy teachers. They rely 
on the book ; they cram the book down the pupil's throat ; 
they close his mouth with it when he asks a question — the 
book is everything. Well, that is quite wrong ! No book can 
teach like a living man or woman ; no printed page can explain 
as pleasantly and interestingly as a well-posted, earnest teacher. 
The book is dead matter — the living being is preferable when 
living beings are to be instructed. The teacher himself must 
be the text-book ; he, not the printed pages, must be the spring 
of knowledge for the students. Text-books are very useful, 
very necessary, but not indispensable for beginners. A good 
teacher with a small class could wholly dispense with a printed 
grammar or method, and give all the instruction, rules and 
exercises to boot, himself. A. text-book is an aid, and a sec- 
ondary one, and should, therefore, never usurp the first 
place. 

Even with few rules, the simple, needed ones, much repeti- 
tion must be resorted to. It cannot be helped ; it is not 
exhilarating to the teacher, but it is indispensable for the 
pupil. And when the teacher feels the least inclination to 
impatience, because a rule, a remark already many times re- 
peated, has been apparently forgotten, just let him remember, 
or, if he cannot remember, let him be absolutely sure that he, 
when learning, forgot just as readily the very same things, and 



66 NOTES ON tHE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 

many more perhaps. Then quietly, pleasantly, gladly, give 
the needed information. 

It takes no more time to repeat information than to get 
mad because it has been forgotten. And it is pleasanter all 
round. 

Teachers — and men in general — are apt not to observe 
themselves closely enough, and, therefore, to ascribe stupidity, 
carelessness, laziness, to pupils when they themselves are 
really in fault. There are, of course, and always will be, 
stupid, careless, and lazy boys and girls, young men and 
maidens, men and women ; but the proportion of these is by 
no means so large as some instructors would maintain. What 
is apparently stupidity in many a pnpil, is, in reality, lack of 
clearness in the teaching. If difficulties are not clearly and 
intelligently explained, the student cannot master them, and 
the fault is not his at all. This is very much more frequently 
the case than many imagine. The writer has seen a great 
deal of teaching, not of French only, and has been amazed 
at the numerous imperfections of teachers visited upon the 
heads of pupils. Carelessness in pupils often arises from 
carelessness in the teacher ; and laziness visible in a class 
may be traced not too seldom to the fountain-head. 

A teacher of French must not spare himself. It is not 
easy for an American or an Englishman to learn a foreign 
language. All the help that can be given should be given. 
It is a mistake to suppose that by refusing the help asked for 
the student is compelled to do better work. He does not do 
better ; he does Avorse. The sole purpose of a teacher's 
existence in that blessed state is to help. Assistance properly 
and promptly given, explanations cheerfully vouchsafed and 
gladly repeated over and over and over again, will bring on 
pupils much faster and much more surely than a policy of 
"find out for yourself — explained it before — so simple any 
fool would know it." 

Again, in all elementary work, which involves a serious 



NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FKENCH. 67 

amount of drudgery on the part of the pupil, — uo matter 
how much aided by his instructor, — it is of prime importance 
to keep up the interest. A class must be always wide awake. 
If the teacher is sleepy, the pupils will snore ; if he is bright 
and alive, the pupils will be the same. The teacher makes 
tlie class what it is. He has no one to blame but himself if 
it turns out poor with the average material furnished him. 
He must work, if the students are to work ; and he must 
work harder than they, whether they know it or not. He must 
lead; always stimulate, encourage. And he must take great 
care to avoid monotony — it is fatal to success. No one exer- 
cise should last too long. Students will do a great deal of 
work if it is skilfully varied for them. They may not under- 
stand this ; it is not necessary they should : but the teacher 
must understand and practise it. 

The teacher may tire himself; if he is good he will: he 
must avoid tiring his pupils. He is not a preacher who has 
the right to be dull and wearisome ; he is an instructor whose 
•first business is to keep his pupils constantly awake, constantly 
interested, constantly learning and progressing. 

Therefore he will vary the study ; some grammar, not over 
much at a time ; some written exercises, as a basis for future 
composition ; some reading and translation; much speaking of 
French ; plenty of explanations. 

SIGHT-READING. 

Sight-reading may be begun the first week. 

Because sight-reading is not only very interesting to students, 
who derive from it a real sense of progress, but because there 
is a French element in English ; and words alike or nearly alike 
in both languages are sufficiently numerous to make a short 
exercise in sight-reading possible and profitable. Needless 
to say that in the course of the first few lessons in sight- 
reading, frequent translation of words and phrases even will 
be required ; but very soon the necessity for this will diminish, 



68 KOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 

and before many weeks are over the class will be able to 
follow the reading without much translation. 

In sight-reading the object is at once to give a vocabulary 
to students, and to enable them to read French without neces- 
sarily translating it into English. They are to be told ex- 
pressly that they are not expected to understand every word, 
but to grasp the sense of the passage being read. This is 
doing in Erench what nearly everybody does in English, 
Very few persons, probably, if the test were applied, could 
give the exact meaning of every English word they read ; one 
need only glance at much of the writing published nowadays 
to be sure of that point, and also that writers themselves 
do not always understand the meaning of the words they 
use. 

Sight-reading is a sure means of interesting students. In- 
stead of wearying them by the dry and repellent old-time method 
of painfully digging out the meaning of each separate word in ten 
lines of Fenelon's " Telemaque " or Voltaire's " Charles XII.," 
it enables them to read, understand, and enjoy complete books. 
First year students in Harvard, for instance, read through 
Halevy's "■ L'Abbe Constantin," Erckmann-Chatrian's '' Ma- 
dame Therese," Labiche's "LaPoudre auxYeux" and "Le 
Voyage de M. Perrichon," George Sand's " La Mare au Diable," 
besides Merimee's " L' Enlevement de la Redoute," and ex- 
tracts from Souvestre and other writers. In short, students 
being interested willingly do an amount of work which, under 
the old method, could never have been got out of them. 

Translation goes hand in hand with sight-reading, but it 
must be translation, not transliteration. The plan of giving 
the exact dictionary meaning of each successive word is bar- 
barous and productive of all manner of evil results. What a 
student must be taught to do is to avoid literal translation, 
and to give instead an equivalent in good English of the 
French original. A single example will suffice to illustrate 
the diiference ; and be it noted that the literal translation is 



NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 69 

by no means exaggerated ; it is just the kind of thing that 
teachers have heard over and over again : — 

" Noil, voyez-vous, Monsieur r Abbe, vous avez tort de prendre les 
choses au tiagique. . . . Teiiez, regardez ma petite jument, comme elle 
trotte! coniuie elle leve les pattes! Vous ne la connaissiez pas. Savez- 
vous ce que je I'ai payee? Quatre cents francs. Je I'ai denichee, il y a 
quinze jours, dans les brancards d'une charette de maraiclier. Une 
fois que c'est bien dans son train, (;a vous fait quatre lieues a I'heure, et 
on en a plein les mains, tout le temps." 

Here is the literal translation, such as the student is likely 
to give it with the help of the dictionary : — 

" No, see you. Mr. Abbe, you are wrong to take things tragically. 
Hold, look at my little mare, how she trots! how she raises the paws, 
hoofs! You did not know it. Do you know that which I have paid? 
Four hundred francs! I found it out, there are fifteen days, in the shafts 
of a cart of a market-gardener. One time that it is well in its train it 
makes you four leagues to the hour, and one has the hands full of it, all 
the time." 

Now, the student who is trained to sight-reading and to trans- 
late the sense of the passage and not the mere words, irrespec- 
tive of their idiomatic meaning, will more nearly approximate 
this : — 

"Now, look here, sir ; you should not look at the dark side of things. 
. . . Why, look at that little mare of mine, how she steps out! Didn't 
know I had her, did you ? Guess what I paid for her ? Four hundred 
francs. Picked her up a fortnight ago from a market-gardener. Once 
she gets into her gait she does her twelve miles an liour, and it is all you 
can do to hold her too." 

All allusions met with in the course of the reading should 
be explained, wheth.er they refer to customs, manners, books, 
men, or history — and they should be explained slowly in 
French, repeating words or sentences if necessary; using 
simple language ; speaking distinctly, and pitching the voice 
so that it will reach every part of the room. It may be ad- 
visable occasionally, but only occasionally, to briefly recapitu- 
late in English what has been said in French; but this should 



70 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 

not often be done ; much better stimulate the curiosity of the 
students. If they have not understood once, they will be 
anxious to understand the next time. 

The test of sight-reading and good translation is not ex- 
amination on a book already read in class, but on passages 
wholly new to the pupils. That test should be applied pretty 
frequently. It is a mistake to take it for granted that the 
students are progressing because they appear to work hard 
and the system employed by the instructor is good. The in- 
structor must knoiv that progress is being made ; he must, 
therefore, use frequent tests to ascertain the exact standing 
of each pupil. 

COMPOSITION. 

The term " French composition " is often misunderstood in 
practice to mean transliteration from English into French. 
It is scarcely possible to commit a Avorse error, or one fraught 
with more disastrous consequences to students. 

To turn a passage in English into French words is neither 
translation nor composition. It may approach the former ; it 
is wide of the latter. 

Composition means writing good French, and in the French 
way, with the French stamp. 

This is not what is usually done. Instead, the dictionary 
is called upon, and about the first w^ord found is accepted as 
sufficient and put down. The work thus done is invariably 
bad — no exception whatever obtains to this rule. 

The first thing to be done when a passage in English is set 
for transposition into French, is to make sure that the pupils 
understand the meaning of the English. It is presumed the 
teacher does ; it is certain that ninety-eight per cent of the 
pupils seldom or never take the trouble to assure themselves 
that they thoroughly grasp the sense of the passage. 

This is the main obstacle to good work. 

It must be impressed upon teachers and pupils alike that the 



NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 71 

object to be attained is the reproduction, in another language, 
of the se7ise of the passage, of the ideas contained iu it, as 
clearly, as plainly as possible. 

That is the first and most important point. 

The next, which is secondary, is to follow, as closely as the 
first point will permit, the form and style of the original. 

Literal translation must be condemned. It is destructive 
of all truth and fidelity. It proceeds on the principle that the 
same words arranged in the same order give the same meaning 
in both languages. This is so utterly false that one cannot help 
wondering that any teacher should tolerate literal translation 
for a moment. 

Generally speaking the use of elision is more frequent in 
English than in French. The tendency of the pupil is, natur- 
ally, to follow the English fashion. The teacher niust not 
be surprised if it takes a long time to eradicate that habit — - 
it has grown up with the student ; it is part and parcel of his 
mode of thought. 

French is richer in forms than English. That point has 
already been referred to with regard to the noun, article, and 
adjective. It is true, likewise, of the pronoun and the verb. 
Compare, for instance : — 

Masc. sing, mine le mien 

Fem. " mine lamienne 

Masc. phir. ours le notre, les notres 

Fem. " ours la notre, les notres 

And in the verb : — 

I had j'avais 

Thou hadst tu avals 

He had il avait 

We had nous avions 

You had vous aviez 

They had ils avaient 

The tendency of the pupil is to use one form only, or two or 
three at most, as in English. This also must be checked ; and 



72 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FKENCH. 

while the training will begin during the year of elementary- 
work, it will be found that it takes time to accustom the pupil 
to the difference between the two tongues. 

The varied meanings of an English word are another source 
of trouble, complicated by unintelligent use of the dictionary. 
Here is one instance out of very many : " A stout German 
who leans on the railing," was actually translated : " Un gros 
Allemand qui s'appuie sur la meclisance." 

The words 7)iai/ and might and could are constantly mis- 
apprehended and no distinction recognized in their use as 
independent or auxiliary verbs. 

Idioms are troublesome, but mainly because teachers are apt 
to yield to the silly requ.est to know " what it means liter- 
alhj.'" An idiom never has any literal meaning, and the at- 
tempt to reproduce it literally is an exercise only fit for idiots. 
What possible good is done by translating literally — Qiv'est- 
ce que c'est que cela? when What is that? is the real meaning 
of the longer phrase. Or, II se tordait les cotes de rive — He 
ttvisted his 7'ibs with lazcghing, which does not convey at all 
exactly the sense of the original, while. He split his sides laugh- 
ing, does. 

One can only give equivalents of idioms, and for this pur- 
pose, among others, it is requisite that the teacher should have 
a thorough knowledge of both tongues. 

In composition, as in every other part of the work, explana- 
tion should be given freely and fully, all questions answered, 
all doubts cleared up. It is an applied, a practical way of 
teaching grammar, and can be made very useful if the teacher 
does not spare himself. Repetition will be needed, and a good 
deal of it ; but it is fruitful in good results, and, besides, an 
instructor must never weary of restating a rule. 

It is very important that the transcribed exercises should 
be read over by the instructor himself, even if he does not 
actually correct them, so that he may see exactly the nature 
and number of mistakes made. This will enable him to ex- 



NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 73 

plain corrections in future lessons and to lay stress upon the 
particular points in which he finds the average of his pupils 
weak. 

Particularly weak pupils should be taken in hand separately 
and shown exactly what their mistakes are, how to correct 
and, above all, how to avoid them. Many pupils fail from 
not knowing how to set about their work ; they start wrong, 
and all the explanations given in class are Greek to them be- 
cause they cannot see the object of them. A very little 
private work with such students is certain to bring them up 
to the level of their class and to transform them from appar- 
ently dull into intelligently receptive individuals. 

It will generally be found that they do not understand the 
use of the dictionary ; that they are not well grounded in the 
elements of grammar, or that, being fairly well grounded, 
they do not know how to apply what they have learned ; and, 
finally, that they are totally ignorant of construction, a serious 
drawback in the study of a language in which clearness of 
expression is the prime requisite. 

Few persons, among those whose mother-tongue is English, 
have any idea of how very loose and inaccurate is much of 
the so-called good English met with in books. The great free- 
dom which the vigor and richness of the language allow of 
in its use, the frequency of ellipsis, the boldness of inversion, 
the large employment of figures and similes, are very apt to 
induce considerable carelessness in the expression of the 
meaning sought to be conveyed, resulting frequently in Bheer 
obscurity. Now, this is utterly foreign to the spirit of the 
French language. A French writer knows and feels that he 
must be clear, and no piece of prose or verse which lacks this 
quality has any chance of being rated good. 

Hence the instructor must take special pains to make cer- 
tain that his students understand the meaning of the passage 
they are called upon to reproduce in French, and this is little 
attended to as a rule. There is apt to be a blind belief that 



74 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 

because an extract is taken from the works of a celebrated 
writer, the English is all right. It ought to be ; it generally 
is, but not always ; and. even if it is, it by no means follows 
that the student understands it. Ignorance is very willing to 
let things go, and if a pupil does not care to take the trouble 
to grasp the sense of the extract, he simply makes a trans- 
literation of it — a hideous abomination. 

Here, by way of illustration, is an extract from " Pictures of 
Places," by Henry James, Jr. It reads very well at the first 
glance, but on examination, for the purpose of reproduction 
in French, the involved nature of some of the sentences and 
the very curious figures used become strikingly apparent : — 

" The standpoint you are likely to choose first is that on the Canada 
Cliff, a little way above the suspension bridge. The great fall faces you, 
enshrined in its own surging incense. Already you see the world-famous 
green, baffling painters, baffling poets, shining on the lip of the precipice; 
the more so, of course, for the clouds of silver and snow into which it 
speedily resolves itself. The whole picture before you is admirably sim- 
ple. The Horseshoe glares and boils and smokes from the centre to the 
right, drumming itself into powder and thunder; in the centre the dark 
pedestal of Goat Island divides the double flood; to the left booms in 
vaporous dimness the minor battery of the American Fall ; while on a 
level with the eye, above the still crest of either cataract, appear the 
white faces of the hithermost rapids. The circle of weltering froth at 
the base of the Horseshoe, emerging from the dead-white vapors — abso- 
lutely white, as moonless midnight is absolutely black — which muffle 
impenetrably the crash of the river upon the lower bed, melts slowly 
into the darker shades of green. " 

Two very brief extracts from James Russell Lowell's 
"Essays" will make quite clear the necessity of understand- 
ing the author's meaning before attempting to reproduce it : — 

"His ' French Kevolution' is a series of lurid pictures, unmatched for 
vehement power, in which the figures of such sons of earth as Mirabeau 
and Danton loom gigantic and terrible, as in the glare of an eruption, 
their shadows swaying far and wide grotesquely awful. But all is painted 
by eruption-flashes in violent light and shade. There are no half-tints, 
no gradations, and one finds it impossible to account for the continuance 



NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 75 

in power of less Titauic actors in the tragedy, like Robespierre, on any 
theory whether of human nature or of individual character supplied by 
Mr. Carlyle. Of his success, however, in accomplishing what he aimed 
at, which was to haunt the mind with memories of a horrible political 
nightmare, there can be no doubt." 

Translate any part of this literally, and the result is incom- 
prehensible nonsense. " Eruption-flashes," for instance. 
Or this, which, at first sight, appears quite easy : — 

Burke and Johnson were both of them sincere men, both of them men 
of character as well as of intellectual force; and I cite their opinions of 
Rousseau with the respect due to an honest conviction which has appar- 
ent grounds for its adoption, whether we agree with it or no. 

Burke et Johnson etaient tous les deux homnies sinceres, tous les 
deux hommes de caractere aussi bien que deforce intellectuelle; et je cite 
leurs opinions de Rousseau avec le respect dii a une honnete conviction 
qui a des raisons apparentes pour son adoption, soit que nous nous 
accordions avec ou non — 

which is very easy to do indeed, but is no more French than 
it is Chinese. 

From the very outset pupils must be taught to use the sim- 
plest construction possible ; to avoid lengthy sentences, abrupt 
inversions, obscure figures or similes. The art of composing 
in any language is not easily acquired, and to attempt to rival 
masters of language and style in the earlier stages of study is 
a piece of folly. These masters will furnish useful models, 
gradually improving the taste ; but the main object of the 
teacher must be to enable his students to express themselves 
clearly and readily. For it must not be forgotten that trans- 
lation of extracts is not the ultimate end to be attained. It 
is only a means to it, the end itself being the power, on the 
part of the student, to express himself at once in written 
French without first putting down his thoughts in English, 
Then, and then only, does he compose ; but if he is constantly 
kept to English models, he will always want English to lean 
on — in other words, he will never master French. 

Therefore students — and this applies to pupils in secondary 



76 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 

schools equally as mucli as to students in colleges — must be 
early set simple exercises in original composition. These may 
be a few lines only in length ; consist of detached sentences 
even, but they must be written without the interposition of 
English. With the gradual progress made, the exercises in- 
crease in length and difficulty. The class hears read a short 
stor}^, and writes a summary of it. Later still, a book having 
been finished, — say "La Mare au Diable " — the pupils are asked 
to write doAvn either a scene from it, or a description of one of 
the characters, or a sketch of the plot. Again, after a vaca- 
tion, they can be called upon for a short letter, telling how 
they spent their time. The results will often be crude, so 
crude, perhaps, as to discourage the teacher. He inust not he 
discouraged. That anything has been produced is of itself a 
satisfactory result, and a guaranty that the students are ca- 
pable, with careful instruction and inexhaustible patience, of 
doing better work. 

By way of illustrating what is actually obtained from 
students, here are a couple of notes written, the one on De- 
cember 20, the other on December 23, by two students who 
entered the elementary class in Fi'ench at the beginning of 
October, neither of them having ever learned a word of the 
language at that time : — 

I, " Avec cette meme malle, je vous envoie cinq livres bleus des exer- 
cises fran(;ais. Fidelement, mon coeur est plus leger depuis ils sont partis. 
J'espere que vous chercherez en vain des erreurs, mais j'ai pressentment 
de mal." 

II. " J'ai reQu votre lettre ce matin, et je serai tres heureux accepter 
votre invitation obligeante, sur lesoir de Noel, le 25Decembre, quoique je 
suis chagrin que mes aims Japons sont occup^s ce soir la." 

The first of these was written by an American, the second 
by a Japanese. 

The more pains an instructor takes, the better the results 
will be ; consequently, as pupils advance in composition work. 



NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 77 

it is advisable to adopt something like the seminar plan. The 
asking of questions must be encouraged to the utmost, for even 
the cleverest and most experienced teacher can never remem- 
ber all the difficulties. 

When the work thus corrected viva voce in class has been 
transcribed, the instructor should, before proceeding to a new- 
piece of work, re-read the correct form and again give expla- 
nations, if called upon — which he will be if the class is good. 
The reason of changes should always be explained; a pupil 
should know why a certain expression or term is right and 
another wrong. 

In more advanced work where themes or summaries are 
written by the students, the corrections will be made out of 
class, as it would manifestly be impossible to correct each 
theme with the whole class and retain their attention ; but 
arrangements should be made to meet a certain small, very 
small, number of the students separately at another hour, and 
there and then explain carefully the why and wherefore of 
each correction or substitution. Merely to correct in red ink 
is to assume a knowledge of grammar and style on the part of 
the student which he evidently does not possess, or he would 
not have needed corrections on his work. 

Composition thus taught, in conjunction with much reading 
of French texts and with constant hearing of spoken French, 
will result in such marked progress that the student will 
gladly do any amount of work, do it well, and become really 
proficient in French. 

MEMORIZING. 

Memorizing passages of verse or prose is an exercise little 
relished, usually, by students, but it is a very useful one in 
three respects. 

First, it increases the vocabulary of the pupil, and this is of 
great importance. All words are not retained, of course, but 



78 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FKENCH. 

those recurring frequently are well fixed in the memory, and 
it is these very words which are most needed by the learner. 

Secondly, forms and locutions are acquired with comparative 
facility, and the more they are unlike those of the pupil's 
mother tongue, the more readily will they strike him and 
stimulate the desire to learn their exact force. 

Thirdly, if the passages are recited aloud to an instructor, 
an excellent opportunity is afforded to correct and improve 
the pronunciation, always a difficult task, and one which must 
be constantly attended to. 

The passages may usually be left to the choice of pupils 
themselves, controlled by the teacher's advice that such ex- 
tracts should be preferred as are from good writers and usually 
referred to in books or conversation. 

To make memorizing compulsory is probably unwise. Some 
people lack the peculiar power of memory which enables one 
to learn extracts by heart ; it is wasting time and trouble to 
compel such individuals to memorize even a short fable of La 
Fontaine. They will stumble over the lines, mispronounce 
the words, lose the connection, make a mess of the sense, and 
irritate the instructor possibly, themselves certainly. In this, 
as in all other methods employed, due attention must be paid 
to the individual peculiarities of the pupil. Machine work, 
routine system, are quite inadmissible if success is to be 
obtained. 

DICTATION. 

This exercise is not open to the reservation made in the 
case of memorizing. It is good for all classes of pupils, and 
may profitably be employed even in the most advanced classes. 
Its primary use lies in accustoming beginners to recognize 
sounds and translate them into orthography. Beginners al- 
ways mispronounce French when called upon to read aloud ; 
they mispronounce it infinitely more when reading to them- 
selves : what they go by is the look of the printed or written 



NOTES OX THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 79 

word ; what they recognize is the combination of characters, 
a familiar termination : they do not readily or correctly appre- 
hend the words when spoken. Eeading aloud by the instructor 
is an excellent means of helping pupils to connect the written 
or printed word with the sound of it when spoken ; but it has 
one drawback in this respect : the student seeks to gather 
and follow the sense of the passage rather than to catch the 
sound of the words. Particularly is this the case when the 
class has the text to look at ; then there is very little real 
work done in the way of connecting sound and jirint. 

In dictation, on the other hand, the main object, at first, 
is to accustom the pupil to note carefully the sound of the 
spoken words and to write these sounds correctly. The sense 
of the passage is relatively unimportant in earlier exercises 
of this nature ; it has to be taken into consideration, that goes 
without saying, but if it is not grasped no harm is done. All 
dictations in the early part of a course in French should be 
directed to one end, — recognizing printed or written words 
by the sounds. It is the training of the ear, not of the eye. 

This training is a necessary adjunct to the teaching of pro- 
nunciation. The pupil cannot imitate what he does not hear ; 
therefore he must be taught to hear, to distinguish one sound 
from the other, so that he may reproduce it correctly. A 
large amount of patience is needed here by both instructor 
and learner. The latter must apply himself attentively to 
catch the sounds actually emitted by the instructor, and he 
must beware of anticipating the sound ; that is, taking it for 
granted that a particular combination of letters is pronounced 
in the way he has adopted for himself. As long as he does 
that he is sure to err ; he will hear, not the pronunciation 
given by the instructor, but the pronunciation he has fixed 
upon in his own mind. It is like the jangling of bells — they 
ring whatever refrain happens to be trotting in one's head. 

The instructor must be patient, particularly in repeating as 
frequently as necessary the words dictated, and in pronoun- 



80 NOTES ON f BTE TEACHING OB* FRENCIt. 

cing them distinctly. And here he must not forget that there 
are two ways of uttering words, and that he must use both if 
the pupil is to be properly helped along. There is the ordi- 
nary utterance, that used in conversation, in reading, where 
many syllables are slurred ; and there is the syllabic, in 
which each member of the word is pronounced separately. 

C^est un enfant extravagant pronounced in both fashions 
will illustrate the point. Pronounced currently, the pupil 
will hear the phrase as in conversation ; pronounced in sylla- 
bles, he will have a better idea of the component members 
of each word, — but the instructor must always end by pro- 
nouncing the words conversationally, since that is the way in 
which they will usually be heard by the student. 

Elementary dictations should bear upon those sounds which 
are alike in French and in English ; there are, strictly speak- 
ing, no sounds exactly alike, but in practice many sufficiently 
resemble each other. Next, words in which similar or nearly 
similar combinations of letters occur in both languages should 
be practised on, e. g. : nation, nation ; historien, historian ; ca- 
nal, canal ; scie7ice, science ; etc. Then sounds wholly French, 
comprising the whole range of nasals, the liquid I, the y in 
the middle of a word, and so on. After this, distinction 
between similar terminations in French, bon, vont, aiment, 
souvent. 

With the progress of the pupil the dictations must assume 
a different character ; rapidity of enunciation must be grad- 
ually introduced and the understanding of the sense of the 
passage insisted upon. Here, too, help must be given. When 
entering upon this part of the work the substance of the pas- 
sage to be dictated may be explained briefly in English ; the 
subject indicated at least. Then the whole passage should 
be read slowly and distinctly in French, to give the class an 
opportunity of understanding it, as far as possible ; next the 
dictation proper, not many words at once ; these repeated three 
or four times over, and the punctuation indicated, care having 



NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 81 

been taken to inscribe on the blackboard the signs of punctua- 
tion, with their names in French. Finally, the passage should 
be re-read throughout. All this means trouble, but without 
trouble and painstaking no teacher can succeed. He needs 
to take both, and intelligently. 

Correction of the dictation may be done in many ways. A 
very bad way, preferred by lazy instructors, is to have the 
work passed on to the next pupil, a general interchange thus 
taking place, and the pupils themselves being told to correct 
from the text if they have it. This plan invariably results 
in numerous mistakes being left uncorrected and in many 
miscorrections. The proper corrector is the instructor. He 
should make a point of looking at every separate exercise, so 
as to see for himself not merely the number, but, what is in- 
finitely more important, the nature of the mistakes. It is an 
excellent lesson for him ; a mode of obtaining very valuable 
information. 

Once he has ascertained in this way what are the individual 
faults, which are the sounds most generally misapprehended, 
he can proceed to correct in class, using the blackboard largely 
to supplement his viva voce spelling. In thus correcting — it 
is understood that each pupil has had his exercise returned 
to him — the instructor must lay stress upon the more com- 
mon mistakes he has noticed and illustrate by pronunciation 
and writing the difference between the right and the wrong 
way. 

Dictations should never be very long ; if they are they 
become tiresome to the pupil and do harm instead of good. 
Teachers who give long dictations do not correct them. 

SPEAKING FRENCH. 

There are many teachers, and very good ones among them 
too, who believe that in teaching a foreign language English 
should be used for all explanations. 



82 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 

The writer believes that on the very first day a beginner 
should hear the sound of the language he desires to learn, and 
that he should be taught in that language as far as possible. 

Not that English need be proscribed ; it cannot be in large 
classes if progress is to be made, but it should be entirely 
secondary ; used as little as possible, and only when repeated 
attempts to make intelligible an explanation in French have 
failed. 

Pupils will quickly pick up the ordinary phrases used in 
the work of the class-room ; more difficult expressions, longer 
explanations, they will understand pretty readily if the black- 
board is used as it should be, and especially if the teacher is 
patient and has sense enough to remember that Rome was 
not built in a day. 

Reading at sight will greatly aid students in understanding 
spoken French, but the best means of making them do so is, 
after all, to speak it. If the teacher takes pains to speak 
slowly and distinctly at first, choosing easy words, using sim- 
ple expressions and the simplest possible constructions, it is 
quite astonishing how rapidly a large class will learn to 
understand him. 

Students should be encouraged to ask their questions in 
French ; they will bungle very often, and some strange sounds 
will be heard, impossible, perhaps, to understand. In that 
case, let the teacher ask that the question be put in English, 
and then repeat it himself in French, drawing attention to 
the words used and to their pronunciation. The next time 
the student speaks, an improvement will be noticed. 

If teachers only knew it — those who do not believe in 
speaking French — they could interest their class very greatly 
by talking about a point of grammar in French, or explaining 
an allusion, a word even. One of the pleasantest sights is to 
see some hundred and odd students listening ''with all their 
ears " to a ten or twelve minutes' talk in French ; students 
who, three or four months before, had never heard a word of 
the lancruage. 



notp:s on the teaching of fkench. 83 

But it may be objected that tlie understanding is only 
apparent, and that in reality the pupils thus addressed have 
not a ghost of an idea of what is being said. Very good; 
only when pupils do not understand, they do one of two 
things, sometimes both ; they cease to listen, or tliey speak 
right out in meeting, and say they do not comprehend. The 
American student is not bashful, as a rule. 

But foolish indeed is the teacher who neglects to test his 
pupils. The exercise of speaking to the class can be easily 
proved useful ; in this way : talk for five, ten, fifteen minutes 
in French ; tlien straightway make every pupil write down 
in English the substance of what has been said. This test 
has been applied over and over again with invariably good 
results, the percentage of failures being rarely more than 
two or three per cent. The summaries are of course collected 
at once. 

A class so taught will prefer to be talked to in French, and 
every member of it feels that he has made distinct progress. 
He becomes more and more interested, and the teacher can be 
sure that all the work he wants done will be done. 

Further, pupils thus prepared in their first year will be 
capable of acquiring a speaking knowledge of French much 
more quickly, and they will soon learn to follow and under- 
stand not only readings, but lectures in French. The language 
is then a living one to them. It is a language, a tool, a help 
in reality. 

CONVERSATION. 

A college student who learns Latin or Greek may be satis- 
fied to read and write it with facility ; but if he studies a 
modern language he ought also to be able to speak it. No 
training in modern languages is complete which does not 
include these three points, — facility in reading, writing, 
speaking. 

Unfortunately, speaking cannot be taught in classes as 



84 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 

numerous as are those in most colleges, and especially in 
some of the larger institutions. Hence the failure of these 
institutions to turn out as many completely fitted men as 
they should. 

The success of the language schools, so-called, arises from 
the classes being restricted in numbers. The idea is not origi- 
nal with them, but they have had the sense to apply it ; and 
they deserve, consequently, all the patronage they get, even 
if they do not always succeed in carrying pupils very far. 

When it comes to trying to teach more than a dozen per- 
sons at a time to speak in a foreign language, the task is so 
much beyond the powers of even very good instructors, that 
they tire themselves out without any corresponding good 
results. 

Students can be taught to speak a foreign language, even if 
they have not the opportunity of going abroad ; but it can 
only be done by capable instructors handling a restricted num- 
ber of pupils, and meeting their class frequently during the 
week. 

No class should exceed twelve in number : eight is quite 
enough; but a smart, competent teacher, with plenty of 
"snap," capable of mflking the lesson bright, lively, and in- 
teresting, can handle ten or twelve without too much over- 
expenditure of nervous force. 

The first difficulty the teacher has to contend with in pupils 
is shyness. The sound of his own voice uttering foreign 
words is usually sufficient to " rattle " the most self-possessed 
student ; and it is very difficult to make learners get over 
that feeling. It is worse in a large class ; it amounts, in 
practice, to frequent stoppage of effort on the part of pupils. 
A small class is therefore likely to do better : for one reason, 
each member of it gets to know the teacher more quickly, 
therefore better, and is more apt to acquire courage to speak 
out. 

The more tact a teacher has the better in this kind of 



IfOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 85 

work. There must be no laughing at the student ; on the 
contrary, a visible and real interest in his progress, and a 
constant readiness, nay, eagerness, to assist, aid, correct. 
There is scarcely anything more trying to a student than the 
attempt to express himself in a foreign language in the pres- 
ence of others. Even if by a determined effort the feeling of 
shyness is overcome, there remains the difficulty of finding 
words to express the thought, of co-ordinating them, when 
found, in a properly constructed sentence, and of pronouncing 
the whole sentence in a way to make it partially intelligible. 
It is very important that the teacher should remember that 
these difficulties and obstacles present themselves each time 
that the student endeavors to speak ; and he must from this 
fact learn to be very patient indeed and helpful to the utmost. 
It is well, also, to explain to the' class that these difficulties 
exist, and must be met and overcome. When students see 
that their instructor knows thoroughly, and appreciates fully, 
the troubles they suffer from, they are at once encouraged. 
Encouragement, assistance, is what the teacher must give. 

The instruction in conversation classes is best given in 
French exclusively. The object must be to counteract the 
tendency of the pupils to fall back upon English ; a tendency 
so strong that no pains must be spared to check it. This is 
one of the reasons why conversation classes are so peculiarly* 
exhausting : there is a strain put upon the instructor greater 
perhaps than in any other part of his work. Another reason 
is the necessity of bearing in mind the vocabulary already 
taught the students, so that a regular progression may be 
maintained and new words introduced just when needed. In 
this branch of the teaching of French, system is indispensable. 
It will not do to get up at haphazard conversations on all 
subjects under the sun. That plan answers very well with 
advanced classes, the members of which have acquired a suf- 
ficient vocabulary, fluency of speech, and, consequently, self- 
reliance. In the earlier stages of the work the ground must 



86 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 

be carefully prepared, and the pupil brought along from one 
point to another with the feeling that he is capable of advan- 
cing. This necessitates not only system and memory on the 
part of the teacher, but very frequent repetition at first, until 
the fundamental groups of words and sentences are thoroughly 
mastered. Tedious, this, if not varied, but it is for the teacher 
to be constantly bright, quick, alive ; if he is, the class will 
be. If he be dull, the class will go to sleep. 

Recourse should not be had to plays and novels. The 
temptation to the teacher to simply read the scenes or pas- 
sages which he enjoys is very great, and the exercise is 
suddenly transformed from one in conversation to one in 
understanding reading. The better the teacher reads, the 
more he should avoid doing it. The pupils hear conversation 
read out; they are not themselves speaking. 

Indeed, it cannot be too often impressed upon a teacher 
that his business in a conversation class, is not to talk him- 
self, but to make the students talk. The former is easy, the 
latter is difficult; but it is the duty to be performed, and stu- 
dents should complain if the instructor indulges in mono- 
logues. It is not often that they will do it openly : they do 
it privately, among themselves, even when they have, for 
reasons of personal amusement or laziness, induced the mono- 
logue. Make the students talk — that is what the instructor 
of a conversation class must constantly repeat to himself. 

CLASSIC WRITERS. 

La Fontaine, Corneille, Moliere, Racine, are read to a small 
extent in most elementary classes — meaning by elementary, 
first, second, and third year work in secondary schools, and 
first and second in colleges. It would be better for the pupils, 
and certainly for the authors, if neither fables nor plays were 
included in the curriculum of those years. Seventeenth cen- 
tury French comes under the denomination of modern French, 
of course, but only by contrast with Old French. A person 



NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 87 

who can read nineteenth centnry French with ease will have 
little or no trouble in reading the classics of the golden age ; 
but the case is different with those who are practically be- 
ginners. They cannot tlioroughly appreciate the beauties of 
these writers because they are having a constant struggle with 
words whose meaning has changed, with forms and construc- 
tions which are obsolete. Their yet shaky knowledge of 
modern syntax is constantly being troubled by forms which 
they have been told they must not use, and which, neverthe- 
less, are declared right when employed by masters of litera- 
ture. 

They are apt to be interested in Moliere's comedies : " Le Bour- 
geois Gentilhomme " and " L'Avare " may always be depended 
upon to amuse a class, especially if read rapidly enough to 
enable the pupils to follow the fun : " Le Cid," in a minor degree, 
will captivate a portion at least ; but Corneille's other master- 
pieces or Racine's superb works are dull and prosy to them. 
These splendid works of art should not be lowered to the base 
use of mere reading-exercises, but kept for that time in the 
study of the language when the pupils having acquired su£&- 
cient familiarity with it, no longer stumble along, but read 
with facility without the necessity for translation. The7i the 
great writers may profitably be taken up and genuine enjoy- 
ment derived by students and teacher from intelligent study 
of comedy, tragedy, or fable. 

Of the four. La Fontaine is least fitted for elementary work 
spite of the fact that in France it is a recognized child's book. 
Nothing can be more dreary for the pupils, more painful for 
the teacher, than the translating of even the first book of the 
Fables as usually done. It is a grievous, wicked sacrifice of 
exquisitely beautiful work, resulting in no good to anybody, 
and generally inspiring the pupil with as profound a detesta- 
tion of La Fontaine as was formerly inspired for Fenelon by 
the misuse of his admirable prose poem. La Fontaine is es- 
sentially a writer for appreciative readers ; besides which his 



88 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 

frequent use of archaisms and patois makes his fables partic- 
ularly difl&cult of understanding to beginners. 

If, however, La Fontaine, Corneille, Moliere, and Eacine 
are to be read, let them be read in such a way as will diminish 
as much as possible the objections raised above. 

To begin with the fabulist. Instead of simply starting on 
reading and translating " La Cigale et la Fourmi," explaining 
painfully what hise means ; that cicalas do not eat worms ; that 
out is spelt aout, and so on, let the hint given by the poet 
himself be taken, and the collection of fables be presented to 
the pupil as une ample comedie a cent actes divers. 

If the class is sufficiently advanced to understand spoken 
French, let the teacher, using that tongue, tell his pupils 
about the France of Louis the Fourteenth, its splendor and 
misery, its division into provinces almost as much separated 
the one from the other as if they were foreign countries, its 
magnificent court of Versailles, its nobility, its clergy, its 
bourgeoisie and its peasantry. Let him picture the times and 
the men ; let him make La Fontaine, the bonhomme, live again 
before the class ; show him wandering in woods, and by river 
and brook, or silent and observant in society, or bright and witty 
with the friends ; and then, taking each fable, make plain each 
different act, show the alternate farce and drama, comedy and 
tragedy ; the home scenes, the episodes of peasant life, the 
hits at king and courtier, the portraits of man, the mirror held 
up to nature. At once the class will brighten, and instead of 
voting La Fontaine a bore, follow with real interest and ever- 
renewed pleasure each successive scene. Let not the transla- 
tion be a desperately dull transliteration, but a vivacious, racy, 
idiomatic reproduction of the original, retaining as much of 
the bloom, of the beauty, of the esprit, subtle and keen, as 
may staffer transposition into another tongue. 

So with the dramatists. A vivid representation of the 
times, a clear exposition of the conditions under which they 
worked, a brief summary of the plot if desired, and a reading 



NOTES ON THE TEACHING OP FRENCH. 89 

of the text from which monotony is carefully excluded. One 
can do serious and thorough work without preternatural 
gravity and excessive boring of pupils. Lighten the tragedy 
as much as possible — there is not one piece which will not bear 
this treatment; bring out strongly the fine passages, the 
striking scenes; summarize the duller and less important; 
read well when reading to the class ; possess your soul in 
patience when the class reads to you. As for the comedy, it 
will always take care of itself. 



PEACTICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS OF 
MODEEN LANGUAGE STUDY. 

BY PROFESSOR A. LODEMAN, MICHIGAN STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 

The student of educational affairs who has devoted any 
attention to the recent history of modern language study, 
must have been impressed with its progress and development 
during the last few decades in all civilized countries. The 
activity in this field has been such that it may well be com- 
pared with the revival of classical study in the sixteenth cen- 
tury ; more than one striking parallel might be drawn between 
that period and the present, and, as is so frequently the case, 
our less biased view of past conditions might make it easier 
for us to see things of immediate concern in their true light. 

The question what effect such an event is likely to have 
upon education in general, what relation it bears to the civil- 
ization of the age, is one in which all thoughtful people 
will easily be interested. In the minds of those who take 
an active part in educational affairs, this question naturally 
assumes a somewhat more definite and restricted form. 
We ask : Jlliy do ive teach modern languages ? and it is 
this question I will endeavor to answer. It seems advis- 
able, however, for the present purpose, to limit the term 
" modern languages " so as to exclude the vernacular ; not, in- 
deed, because the English does not deserve the first and inost 
earnest consideration in any discussion of the subject of living 
languages, but because, for that very_reason, and for others as 
well, it is more appropriately treated by itself. My remarks 
will also, for obvious reasons, have reference mainly to French 
and German only. " 



OF Mf'.DERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 91 

The first ?:iswer to our question may be given in the 
words of another : ^■'' IVe tearh modern languages, ^^essentially 
because they are so sujjvemehj useful" Let no one, not even 
the votary of the sublimest idealism, for a moment be shocked 
by this confession ! We say we teach modern languages be- 
cause they are useful ; who will advocate the teaching of use- 
less things ? We do not say, however, that we teach French 
and German because they can under all circumstances be put 
to immediate use in any special industry or trade ; that is im- 
possible, as will appear farther on. 

What we do claim is, first, that the modern languages are 
extremely useful as a means to literary culture and to a liberal 
education. "We believe," Macaulay wrote in 1837, "that 
the books which have been written in the languages of Western 
Europe during the last two hundred and fifty yea-rs are of 
greater value than all the books which at the beginning of 
that period were extant in the world." * If this statement 
miglit possibly have seemed too strong at the time when made, 
it certainly cannot be considered so now, with the immense 
additional literature of the last half century thrown into one 
scale of the balance. The languages which furnish the key 
to a large portion of this treasure are indeed useful ; and John 
Stuart Blackie, late professor of Greek in Edinburgh Uni- 
versity, may well say that "the languages which claim most 
loudly the regard of an« English-speaking gentleman of the 
present day, whether on the east or the west side of the 
Atlantic, are French and German." Next to the French and 
German he names the Latin, Greek, and Italian.^ 

The claims of modern literature, with reference to its 
aesthetic value and moral effect, and as a means of a more gen- 
eral diffusion of correct taste, have been discussed by able 
writers, who assign to it the first place in the intellectual cul- 
ture of our time.® Lowell has pointed out how much the 
great English writers are indebted for their style to other 

' Essay on Lord Bacon. 2 N.Y. Independent, Nov. 26, 1891. 



92 PEACTICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS 

moderns: "Did not Spenser . . . form himself on French 
models ? " he asks. •' Did not Chaucer and Gower, the shapers 
of our tongue, draw from the same sources ? ... Is not the 
verse of ' Paradise Lost ' moulded on that of the ' Divina 
Comedia ' ? Did not Dr3^den's prose and Pope's verse profit 
by Parisian example ? Nay, in our time is it not whis- 
pered that more than one of our masters of style in English, 
and they, too, among the chief apostles of classic culture, owe 
more of this mastery to Paris than to Athens and Rome ? " '' 
And as to ideas, the same great writer exclaims: "And 
shall we say that the literature of the last three centuries is 
incompetent to put a healthy strain upon the more strenuous 
faculties of the mind ? That it does not appeal to or satisfy 
the mind's loftier desires ? That Dante, Machiavelli, Mon- 
taigne, Bacon, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Pascal, Calderon, Les- 
sing, and he of Weimar, in whom Carlyle and so many 
others have found their University, — that none of these set 
our thinking gear in motion to as good purpose as any an- 
cient of them all ? Is it less instructive to study the growth 
of modern ideas than of ancient ? " '' I will dismiss this point 
with the words of President Cox, of the University of Cincin- 
nati, " I believe that Avhilst we could not afford to lose the 
old culture, we cannot afford to neglect the new." (^^ iv., 3.) 

It is further claimed that the modern languages are useful, 
nay, indispensable aids in the pursiiit of other branches of 
knowledge. First of all, I mention the study of English. 
" Disguise it as we may," wrote Professor Hunt of Princeton, 
ten years ago, "it is not the most consoling reflection of the 
patriotic Englishman or American, that as yet the ablest 
researches into our vernacular are the product of Continental, 
if not of German, scholarship. . . . English grammar, most 
especially, has been studied in Germany from the scientific 
standpoint, with constant reference to primitive principles 
and forms." ^ Not quite ten years later another high author- 

1 Princeton Review, 1881, pp. 227, 231. 



OF MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 93 

ity could make the statement that it was no longer necessary 
for the American student of English to go abroad to be 
taught the earlier forms of his mother tongue ; that Anglo- 
Saxon and other Teutonic languages were taught in all the 
centres of learning in tliis country. And the number of 
institutions which have in recent years extended their courses 
in English is indeed very great. On the other hand, a large 
proportion of the leading works on the English language and 
literature are still written in foreign languages, and the same 
is true of articles m periodicals. A glance at recent numbers 
of Englische Studien and Anglia shows that all contributions 
to the latter, and sixteen out of seventeen to the former, are 
in German. Aside from this use of foreign languages in the 
pursuit of advanced scholarship in English, the study of for- 
eign languages is itself one of the best means of learning one's 
own. " We have learned," says one of the greatest American 
scholars, "that the round-about course, through other tongues, 
to the comprehension and mastery of our own, is the shortest." '" 

The advanced student of the ancient classics, of philology, 
and of archaeology, can no more pursue his study without 
French and German, than an ocean steamer can run from 
New York to San Francisco by the overland route. 

In Mathematics we have it from good authority that ten 
valuable works in either French or German are published to 
one in English, so that it is impossible to make up a good 
mathematical library of English works alone. 

Books in the Physical and Natural Sciences are perhaps 
translated more frequently than those in other departments, 
but here, too, much that is of the highest value to the special- 
ist can be found only in some foreign language. There is a 
recent statement of Dr. S. Sheldon to the effect that Wie- 
dermann's Annalen der Physik, and the Jahresberichte of the 
German Chemical Society, "contain more original matter each 
month than is published in America during a whole year." ^ 

1 Pedagogical Seminary, 111., p. 488. 



94 I'RACTICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS 

Until recently the Science of Education might almost have 
been considered a German science. Within the last twenty- 
years, however, the contributions in English, French, and other 
languages to pedagogical literature have been numerous and 
important. Still, an examination of the monthly bulletins 
of publications in this field, or of educational bibliographies, 
shows a preponderance of German works ; and the references in 
English treatises on the science of education are mostly to 
German authorities. 

In an historical and critical work on Aryan Philology, 
published some twelve years ago by an Italian,^ about four- 
fifths of the books cited are German. 

In short, to use the words of President Eliot of Harvard, 
" the philologists, archaeologists, metaphysicians, physicians, 
physicists, naturalists, chemists, economists, engineers, archi- 
tects, artists, and musicians all agree that a knowledge of these 
languages is indispensable to the intelligent pursuit of any one 
of their respective subjects beyond its elements." ^^ Or, to 
quote the president of another great university, " A liberal edu- 
cation absolutely requires that every English-speaking person 
should have a knowledge of French and German also; for it is 
from the French and Germans that in these days we receive 
the most important contributions to literary and physical 
science." 32 

I now pass to my second answer to the question " Why do 
we teach modern languages," which is, — On account of their 
disciplinary value. Here I must first of all guard against a 
misunderstanding. Mental discipline cannot be understood as 
something separate or separable from mental activity — every 
kind of mental activity, and hence the acquisition of any kind 
of useful knowledge, yields discipline. "The connection and 
interdependence of the two," says Professor W. D. Whitney, 
" are complete. No discipline without valuable knowledge ; 

1 Pezzi ; " Aryan Philology." 



OF MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 95 

all valuable knowledge available for discipline ; the discipline 
in proportion to the amount and value of the knowledge 
acquired : these are fundamental truths in the theory of 
education. . . . To ask what knowledge is disciplinary is the 
question of ignorance. The true question to ask is, What 
kind of discipline does any given knowledge afford, to what 
does it conduct ? " ^^ Discipline, as we shall see farther on, 
depends rather upon method than upon subject-matter; for 
even if we follow Professor Laurie and distinguish between 
discipline and training, and say that the mind is disciplined 
by fixing it on the formal or abstract, and trained by occu- 
pation with the real or concrete, it will be found that each 
branch of study has its formal and its real side, and it is 
a question of method which side is to be emphasized. Lan- 
guage, for example, may be taught "as a concrete subject; 
that is to say, with special reference to the substance of 
thought," in Avhich case the pupil's mind is carried through 
processes of thinking, and is thereby trained ; or it may be 
studied with reference to " the relations of the word-vestment," 
in which case the mind deals with the formal, the abstract, 
the grammatical, and thereby is disciplined. Q'^ Lectures II. 
and IV.) It goes without saying that the true method has to 
provide for both. 

I need not dwell upon the disciplinary value of language- 
study in general ; it is self-evident, since language is the 
instrument which renders all mental power effective, "the me- 
dium by which our thinking processes are carried on." The 
subject of my discussion calls only for a brief presentation of 
the relative disciplinary value of liring foreign languages. 

Mental discipline, in any higher sense, implies continued 
effort and use of the judgment. Therefore, a special disci- 
plinary power has been claimed for the ancient languages be- 
cause they are so difficult. But this superior difficulty is by 
no means conceded by those who, having acquired a thorough 
and tolerably complete knowledge of both ancient and modern 



96 PRACTICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS 

languages, have investigated the question of their relative 
difficulty. The distinguished classical scholar Madwig has 
recently been quoted by a committee of the Norwegian Diet 
as an authority for the superior pedagogical value of Latin and 
Greek ; and to what better authority could one appeal ? Yet 
Madwig does not claim for these languages a greater intrinsic 
disciplinary value or logical structure, but he attributes their 
special educational value to the circumstance that they are 
more foreign to us and cannot be acquired from others by 
mere practice."^ The same point had been made earlier by 
Beneke. In other Avords, the ancient languages, Avhen studied 
thoroughly, yield better intellectual results than living lan- 
guages taught superficially. 

According to Beneke, a profound thinker and one of the 
ablest defenders of ancient classical studies, Greek and Latin 
are decidedly more difficult than French and English ; ^^ but 
it is only too evident that his conception of the aims and 
methods of the study of French, as compared with those 
of Latin and Greek, is very low. So much has been written 
on the comparative pedagogical value of ^ the ancient and the 
modern languages, that a bibliography of the literature would 
fill a small volume. (See, e.g., "^ p. 375, and ^° p. 506.) But 
as far as my knowledge of the literature goes, it is only in 
recent times that men have renounced the unnecessary task 
of proving that little French, poorly taught, is not equal to 
much Latin, well taught. Beneke does not believe that the 
"outward elements'' of Greek and Latin possess much or any 
educational power; yet it is these elements that are often so 
highly praised as means of mental g3'mnastics ! As to an- 
cient literature, it is, in his judgment, superior to modern in 
grand simplicity and beauty of form, but far inferior in rich- 
ness and sublimity of thought. It is especially adapted to 
the young. " The educated ??^a?^," he says, " will, as a rule, 
derive richer and more vigorous food from German and English 
authors ; . . . but this richer and more vigorous food is not 



OF MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 97 

yet suitable for the young." (" II., p. 122.) A similar 
thought has been expressed by an American scholar of our own 
clay, who says, " The study of modern life and the language in 
which it is crystallized, is not milk for babes, but meat for 
strong men." ® 

Professor Bernhard Schmitz, in his Encydopddle des philo- 
logischen Studiums der modernen Sprachen, admits the greater 
difficulty of Latin and Greek grammar, but does not con- 
sider the study of grammar the principal difficulty in learn- 
ing a language, but rather the wealth of the language it- 
self, especially the phraseology; and with respect to this 
he claims all languages are equally difficult.-^ Others who 
have made comparisons in the same direction do not even 
concede greater grammatical difficulties to the ancient lan- 
guages. And it would, indeed, be no easy matter to show why 
to comprehend the delicate shades in the use of tenses and 
moods in French " does not demand as severe and high an ex- 
ercise of the discriminating faculty as to comprehend the 
same in Latin, or even in Greek ; " " or why the correct use 
of the German prepositions does not call for as strict atten- 
tion as that of the Latin and Greek pi-epositions ; or why, in 
translating, " the powers of analysis and synthesis are not as 
much needed, and as much cultivated, by a thorough mastery 
of the German as of the Greek." ^® Does not a language like 
the French, which requires for an exhaustive, though brief 
treatment of the definite article twenty-six pages and forty- 
two different heads, and the conjugation of which contains 
forty-five more forms than the Latin, ^'^ offer sufficient oppor- 
tunity for mental discipline ? Dr. Wilhelm Schrader, Pro- 
fessor of Pedagogy in the University of Halle, justly ascribes 
eminent disciplinary value, both formal and real, to the study 
of French, if properly pursued. Q^ pp. 509-512.) 

Professor Babbitt, of Columbia College, who has had 
experience in teaching ancient and modern languages, has 
examined in detail the advantages to be derived from the 



98 PRACTICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS 

pursuit of either, and comes to the conclusion that the disci- 
pline in both cases is equally valuable : he introduces, how- 
ever, the question of pace, and believes that the opportunities 
for discipline lie at a more advanced stage in the modern 
languages than in the ancient; so that a modern language 
student, to gain the same amount of discipline, must go over 
more ground than the student of Latin and Greek ; and for 
this the course of study and the method must provide.^ 

We find that in every case where the disciplinary value of 
modern language study is depreciated, the reason is to be 
found in an unfair comparison in which the method is lost 
sight of : '' Just in proportion as methods have been bettered 
and the true spirit of linguistic training developed, the 
modern languages have risen higher in the scale of potent 
agencies for mind-culture." ^^ 

While feeling entirely free from any desire to detract from 
the merits of ancient language study as a means of higher 
education, we cannot but recognize the fact that our age is 
fast outgrowing the belief in any miraculous power of disci- 
pline peculiar to Latin and Greek. This change of opinion is 
going on in all civilized countries. ^* 

Before leaving this question, it may be well to enter a 
general protest against the false assumption that the more 
difficult study always yields the greater mental discipline. If 
such were the case, other languages would be far ahead of 
any we have been considering; as, for example, the Nahuatl 
of old Mexico, the verb of which has eight hundred and sixty- 
five regularly derived forms, or the Otchipwe, in which every 
verb is capable of eight million variations.^* And since the 
difficulty for the learner increases as the teacher deviates from 
the processes suggested by psychological laws, it would follow 
that, the poorer the teaching, the greater the discipline. But 
the truth is, there is scarcely anything hard for the average 
pupil, if the ideas are properly presented.^ 

The opinion may be held by some that, while the modern 



OF MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 99 

languages are valuable for general mental discipline, they 
cannot furnish that special philological training resulting 
from the advanced study of Latin and Greek. But the least 
acquaintance with the history of the growth of such lan- 
guages as the English, German, and French , and with the 
literature and methods of modern philology, must convince 
any one that such a view is untenable. " The wealth of 
material they [the modern languages] offer for philological 
training and historical investigation is becoming more appre- 
ciated every day." ^^ " Had we nothing else with yet stronger 
recommendations to apply to," says Professor W. D. Whitney, 
"the German and French, especially the former, would answer 
to us all the essential disciplinary purposes of philological 
study ; as, indeed, to many they are and must be made to 
answer those purposes. As the case stands, they are among 
the indispensable parts of a disciplinary education." *° 

If we apply to the study of living languages the test of 
systematic psychology, it appears that there is not a single 
mental activity which is not called into play and stimulated 
in the pursuit of this study, if properly taught, beginning at 
the foot of the scale, with sensation, up to the highest uses of 
the reasoning power and the judgment. But such inquiry 
into the influence of modern language study upon special 
mental activities involves necessarily the question of methods, 
upon which it depends. I will therefore pass to the second 
question : — 

HOW SHOULD WE TEACH THE MODERN LANGUAGES ? 

The number of possible methods of teaching languages is 
infinite. The text-books may be counted by thousands : a 
bibliography, doubtless incomplete, of French grammars alone, 
published between the years 1500 and 1800, includes six 
hundred and fift}^ titles.^* A large proportion of such works 
bears the sub-title "A New Method." And if we take 
into account the various uses made of the same text-book by 



100 PRACTICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS 

different teachers, the actual number of different methods of 
teaching, it would seem, must be legion. Many of the 
methods advocated or practised by eminent educators in the 
past have more than an historical interest to the teacher of 
to-day : the views of men like Erasmus, Melanchthon, Ratich, 
Comenius, Locke, the Jesuit teachers, of Jacotot, Hamilton, 
Marcel, Prendergast, Heness, Sauveur, and others, are suggest- 
ive and stimulating, and the history of their methods is in- 
structive. But in all the literature of this class we do not 
find the true answer to our question " How should we teach 
the modern languages ? " We must give it from our own 
standpoint, in the light of the knowledge and experience of 
the present age, being guided in the main by two considera- 
tions : The method, that is, the " ivay," must lead to the end in 
view, and it must he in harmony with the laws of mind-growth. 
The ultimate test of every method must be the psychological. 
Without it we are liable to commit the gravest errors and 
not be aware of them ; mere practical results cannot be con- 
sidered as decisive : the question how the results were obtained 
is of the utmost importance. 

The task of learning a language consists in the acquisition 
of the material (vocabulary, phraseology, idioms) and the 
mastery of the principles or rules which govern the use of 
the material (inflections, syntax). If we attack the material 
first, i.e., the living language itself, we follow the analytical 
method ; we begin, for instance, with a printed page or sen- 
tence, or a spoken sentence, and by analysis study the parts 
and their relations. If, on the other hand, we attack first the 
principles governing the use of the various parts of speech 
and their combinations, we proceed synthetically, construct- 
ing the language, i.e., the sentence, representing the unit of 
language, out of its elements, according to certain rules. The 
former method may also be called the practical, and the latter 
the theoretical, or grammar method. Then we may begin 
with either one of these two methods, and soon pass to the 



OF MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 101 

other, and combine tlie two, so that we have, in addition, the 
analytico-synthetie and the syntlietico-anah/tic methods. (It 
should be remarked that the terms analytic and synthetic 
may also be applied to the language-material, instead of to the 
process ; in that case the meanings of the terms synthetic 
method and analytic method are reversed, the former denot- 
ing the method dealing with language in its synthetic form, 
the latter the method dealing with language in its analyzed, 
decomposed form. Thus Henry Sweet speaks of "the syn- 
thetic methods of the Middle Ages, by which sentences were 
grasped as wholes, .not analyzed diu6.put together like pieces ol 
mosaic work.") " 

I have set down as the principal aim in the teaching of 
modern languages, their %ise as a means of literary culture and 
of information in various departments of knowledge. Such 
use presupposes first of all the ability to read the languages. 

Psychology teaches that the mind proceeds from a knowl- 
edge of " wholes " to that of their parts (analysis), and from 
the concrete to the abstract. We are, then, forcibly pointed 
to the analytical and analytico-synthetie methods ; simple read- 
ing, not systematic grammar, forms the first step. An ele- 
mentary grammar method, with plenty of illustrations in the 
foreign language, is not, however, to be condemned, since it 
lends itself to the analytical way of procedure. Though we 
care at the start more for the printed than for the spoken 
language, ^)ro?«<??aV///ow is not to be neglected (as some methods 
demand), because the beginner will attach some sound-image 
{GeJwrsvorsteJlnng) to the printed word, whether we wish it 
or not ; and the only safe way of preventing/a/.se sound-images 
from fixing themselves in his mind is to teach him the correct 
sounds. Thus, the knowledge of language begins, where all 
knowledge begins, with sensation : audible and visible signs, 
acquired through the senses of hearing and of sight, form 
the basis of clear ^erce;?#s. It should be noted that, in the 
study of foreign languages, the foreign word, phrase, or sen- 



102 PRACTICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS 

tence, as the case may be, becomes the object of sense-per- 
ception ; the contents of these, as well as their names in the 
mother tongue, are supposed to be known, at least approxi- 
mately ; the foreign sign, or form of expression, for a familiar 
idea becomes a new object of perception. 

The student desirous of learning to read a foreign language 
for the sake of an accurate understanding of the subject-mat- 
ter (and this is what our purpose necessarily implies), must 
translate into his own vernacular until he learns to understand 
the foreign without translation. 

Psychology teaches that the mind advances to new knowl- 
edge on the basis of what it already knows. 

Hence, the foreign language is to be studied by comparison 
with the mother tongue ; translation into English, therefore, 
is to be begun at the very outset, not to be avoided, as some 
methods demand. 

From pei'ception, i.e., knowing what is present (to sight or 
hearing), the mind passes to conception, i.e., knowing what is 
not present to the senses : words and phrases must be in the 
pupil's mind. Hence, such parts of the lesson as the pupils 
are expected to retain in memory must be given by them for 
their English equivalents : Translation into the foreign lan- 
guage is necessary from the beginning ; it will at first be con- 
fined to the rendering of phrases and sentences, but will have 
to be extended to the translation of entire paragraphs in ad- 
vanced classes, in order to afford opportunity for the applica- 
tion of general principles. 

Mental discipline — one of our aims in teaching living lan- 
guages — is impossible without the exercise of the higher 
activities of the mind, of the reasoning power and of the 
judgment. Again, no accurate and reliable knowledge of a 
language, such as its use for the purposes of culture and infor- 
mation demands, can be gained without as tudy of the princi- 
ples and laws governing its use. The study of grammar, 
therefore, is indispensable. We now proceed, in accordance 



OF MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 103 

with the laws of mind-growth, from simple concepts to general 
concepts, to classes with certain general characteristics, from 
the concrete to the abstract. " We must base all generaliza- 
tion on the particular and concrete, which alone gives the 
general and abstract any meaning. Rules of syntax are gen- 
eralizations, and they are to be constructed out of the ini- 
tiatory reading-lesson by the pupil, with the help of the 
master." ^^ • Or, at least, all general rules are to be studied 
in close connection with concrete examples, and the reading- 
lesson should furnish these. This calls for reasoning and 
judgment. 

The reasoning out the meaning of words from the con- 
text constitutes another valuable means of mental discipline. 
" This is not blind guessing ; it is legitimate reasoning from the 
known to the unknown." (^^ vi., 60,61 ; v., 10,11.) Methods 
like Hamilton's and Jacotot's, founded upon the use of inter- 
linear or lateral translations, are in general not to be recom- 
mended. The dictionary should be used, but not abused. 
Sight-reading in the class-room should receive due attention. 

Translation requires the abstraction of the thought from 
the concrete form in which it is expressed, in order to vest it 
with a new form. Discriminatioyi, both between different 
forms of expression and between various shades of meaning 
and thought, is constantly needed, and no other method of 
studying the mother tongue is, in this res2)ect, equal to this prac- 
tice of translating from a foreign language. But any method 
which discards the use of the mother tongue, as, for example, 
the so-called "Natural Method," is of inferior educational 
value. 

Our aim in teaching modern languages implies a ready use 
of them ; this means, the pupil must form the hahit of apply- 
ing his knowledge. The laws of habit (psycho-physiological) 
show that repeated action and essentially uniform method 
of action are necessary to form habitual action. ^^ "Every 
acquisition in the shape of words or generalizations, accord- 



104 PEACTICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS 

ingly, must be turned to \xs.e, from the beginning." The most 
important words, phrases, and rules must be used frequentlT/ ; 
rare words and expressions will have to be passed over 
more rapidly. Every work read for the purpose of language- 
study ought to furnish a number (say from fifty to a hundred) 
of useful phrases and idioms to be firmly fixed in the mind. 
This should largely be done by oral exercises. Oi^al exeyxises 
provide the best means of acquiring promptness in the use of 
the linguistic material and in the application of rules. This 
practice is also due those members of a class who wish 
to converse in the foreign language; and experience teaches 
that a considerable degree of fluency in speaking may be 
attained by this method, if teacher and pupil follow it con- 
scientiously through the course. Tlie general method pre- 
cludes, however, the teaching of conversation for special busi- 
ness purposes, or for foreign travel, which would involve the 
learning of special vocabularies and technical phraseologies. 

Copious reading is another means of rendering the pupil, 
through practice, familiar with the common material of the 
language, and with the laws governing its use. It is equivalent 
to a constant review of what is of most frequent occurrence in 
the language. Besides, it has been well said, in the study of 
modern languages the student should use the Will " in keep- 
ing up the pace, rather than struggling with difficulties that 
are beyond his powers." (^ p. 54.) 

Correct use of the language is always to be insisted upon. 
This, especially in the oral exercises, makes concentration 
imperative and serves in an eminent degree as a discipline of 
the Will. At the same time, the Will is stimulated by the 
attractiveness of the exercise. A superficial conversation- 
method which relies upon imitation alone, and neglects the 
application of general laws to special cases, does not strengthen 
the will-power. 

Practice in the use of the foreign language cultivates the 
Imagination. The imagination is active in reproducing what 



OF MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 105 

has been acquired; it "selects, modifies, arranges, combines." 
A pure reading-method, like Marcel's, is less effective iu 
this respect. The reading and translating of foreign authors 
is of the highest value to the development of the imaginative 
faculty, and conversation helps to lend vividness to the pic- 
tures in the mind. 

I have not mentioned the cultivation of the Memory. It 
is evident from the foregoing considerations that the study 
of modern languages offers wide opportunity, not only for 
the exercise of verbal memory, but especially for the rational 
use of this important power, by means of association, com- 
parison, discrimination. Even in the acquisition of the vo- 
cabulary of the foreign language, all these aids may be made 
use of by observing the formation and derivation of words 
from common roots, etc. ; and there is a still wider use for 
them in the study of idioms and phrases, where the reasoning 
power should always be appealed to. 

Further, in the study of autliors, the imagination may be 
made a powerful aid to memory ; as, for example, when, with 
the situation and the characters, their expressions and conver- 
sations are recalled. And while the introduction of philologi- 
cal matter in elementary classes is, on the whole, to be 
avoided, it affords not unfrequently a valuable help to mem- 
ory. In like manner, the principles of the historical develop- 
ment of language may be legitimately used to assist the 
memory and the understanding. Thus, Paul's "Principles of 
the History of Language," is full of suggestions to the teacher. 

Methods which, like Prendergast's, or its more modern 
representative, the Meisterschaft System, reduce the study of 
a language for many weeks and months to the memorizing of 
one hundred words, and to ringing the changes on sentences 
formed with this limited vocabulary, leave little room for a 
rational cultivation of memory. There need be very little 
mechanical memorizing when the method I have outlined is 
followed. 



106 PRACTICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS 

Since literary culture is one of the ends we have in view, 
the method of teaching must make ample provision for the 
cultivation of literary taste. The literature read must not 
merely be treated as a means of learning the language, but it 
must also be studied from the (esthetic standpoint, and open 
to the student occasional glimpses into the field of comparative 
literature. 

The study of the best literary productions in a foreign lan- 
guage ought also to lead to certain ethical results. " The 
literature of a people reflects its character, its manners and 
morals, its history ; to study the same means, in a certain sense, 
to share in the intellectual, moral, and political life of the 
nation, which we esteem the more, the better we know it." ^^ 
The study of modern languages ought, therefore, to have 
an "■ eminently conciliatory " influence. No student of the 
literature and life of various nations can fail to see how 
generally these misunderstand and misjudge each other, and 
how true is the judgment of an eminent writer with which I 
will close : " The relation of the various peoples of the earth to 
the supreme interests of life, to God, virtue, and immortality, 
■may be investigated up to a certain point, but they can never 
be compared to one another with absolute strictness and cer- 
tainty. The more plainly in these matters our evidence seems 
to speak, the more carefully must we refrain from unqualified 
assumptions and rash generalizations. This remark is espe- 
cially true with regard to our judgment on questions of moral- 
ity. It may be possible to indicate many contrasts and shades 
of difference among different nations, but to strike the bal- 
ance of the whole is not given to human insight. The ul- 
timate truth with respect to character, the conscience, and 
the guilt of a people, remains forever a secret ; if only for the 
reason that its defects have another side, where they reappear 
as peculiarities or even as virtues." ^ 



OF MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 107 

REFERENCES. 

1. W. T. Hewitt, The Aims and Methods of Collegiate Instruction 
in Modern Languages. (Publications of the Modern Language Associa- 
tion of America, vol. i., p. 25, if.) 

2. F. V. N. Paintek, A Modern Classical Course. (Publ. M. L. A., 
i.,112.) 

3. J. GoEBEL, German Classics as a Means of Education. (Publ. M. L. 
A., i., 156.) 

4. H. C. G. VON Jagemann, On the Use of English in Teaching 
Foreign Languages. (Publ. M. L. A., i., 216.) 

5. Fkanklin Cartek, The Study of Modern Languages in our 
Higher Institutions. (Publ. M. L. A., ii., 1.) 

6. James MacAllister, The Study of Modern Literature in the Edu- 
cation of our Time. (Publ. M. L. A., iii., 8.) 

7. James Russell Lowell, Address before the M. L. A. (Publ. 
M. L. A., v., 5.) 

8. E. S. JoYNES, Reading in Modern Language Study. (Publ. M. L. 
A., v., 33.) 

9. E. H. Babbitt, How to Use Modern Languages as a Means of 
Mental Discipline. (Publ. M. L. A., vi., 52.) 

10. W. D. Whitney, Language and Education. (North Araer. Rev., 
October. 1871.) 

11. A. M. Elliott, Modern Languages as a College Discipline. (Edu- 
cation, September-October, 1884. ) 

12. S. S. Laurie, Lectures on Language and Linguistic Method. 
(Cambridge, 1890.) 

13. C. CoLBECK, On the Teaching of Modern Languages in Theory 
and Practice. (Cambridge, 1887. ) 

14. A. F. Chamberlain, Modern Languages and Classics in America 
and Europe since 1880. (Toronto, 1891.) 

15. Charles W. Eliot, What is a Liberal Education ? (Century, 
June, 1884.) 

16. James King Newton, A Plea for a Liberal Education. (Bal- 
timore.) 

17. Charles E. Fay, The Preparatory Schools and the Modern Lan- 
guage Equivalent for Greek. (Baltimore.) 

18. E. S. JoYNES, Position of the Modern Languages in the Higher 
Education. (Baltimore.) 

19. Geo. F. Comfort, Modern Languages in Education. (Syracuse, 
N.Y., 1886.) 

' Burkhardt, " The Renaissance in Italy," ii., p. 211. 



108 PRACTICAL' AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS. 

20. Language Methods, Interchange. (Academy, Syracuse, November 
and December, 1886.) 

21. Bebnhard Schmitz, Encyclopaedie des philologischen Studiums 
der neueren Sprachen, vi., 108 ff. (Leipzig, 1876.) 

22. Beneke, Erzielmngs- und Unterrichtslehre, ii., 114 ff. (Berlin, 
1864.) 

23. Das humanistische Gymnasium, Heft, .3 u. 4. (Heidelberg, 1891.) 

24. Literaturblatt f iir germanische und romanische Pliilologie. (Jan- 
uar, 1892.) 

25. Publications of the Modern Language Ass'n of America, vols, i.-vi. 

26. Modern Language Notes, vols, i.-vi. 

27. Henky Sweet, The Practical Study of Language (in 13th Ad- 
dress of the President of the English Philological Society, 1884.) 

28. Dr. Wilhelm Schrader, Erziehimgs- und Unterrichtslehre fiir 
Gymnasien und Realschulen, 5 Aufl. (Berlin, 1889.) 

29. K. V. Stoy, Encyclopadie, Methodologie und Literatur der Pada- 
gogik. - (Leipzig, 1878.) 

30. Dii. Herman Schiller, Handbuch der praktischen Padagogik. 
(Leipzig, 1890.) 

31. Dr. Paul Radestock, Die Gewohnung und ihre Wichtigkeit 
fiir die Erziehung. (Berlin, 1884.) 

32. D. C. GiLMAN, The Idea of a Liberal Education. (Educational 
Review, February, 1892.) 

33. Paul DoNAU, L'Enseignement des Langues modernes. (Bruges, 
1874.) 

34. C. H. Grandgent, The Teaching of French and German in our 
Public High Schools. (School and College, March, 1892.) ^ 

35. O. B. Super, The Aim and Scope of the Study of Modern Lan- 
guages and Methods of Teaching them. (University Magazine, April, 
1892.) 

36. Calvin Thomas, Observations on Teaching Modern Languages. 
(Michigan School Moderator, No. 218.) 

37. Dr. Cukt Schaefek, Der formale Bildungswert des Franzo- 
siscbeij. (Braunschweig, 1890.) 



COLLEGIATE INSTEUCTION IN THE ROMANCE 
/ LANGUAGES.! 

BY PROFESSOR F. M. WARREN, ADELBERT COLLEGE OF WESTERN 
RESERVE UNIVERSITY. 

It can be said without exaggeration that the year 1891 
marks in the United States a definite step in the progress of 
modern language instruction. For the first time in the his- 
tory of our colleges, the demand for men who have pursued 
the study of foreign living languages — especially French — 
as a profession, has far exceeded the supply ; and all indica- 
tions point to an increase in the demand. And in this year, 
also, have instructors in modern languages, for the first time 
since the scientific development of these studies, been invited 
to present their experience and their views before a public 
audience." 

To be sure, there has been much discussion on the place and 
purpose of foreign languages in our educational system, both 
by educators. who have appeared before the public at large, 
and by instructors who have addressed their colleagues in the 
privacy of the scientific associations. But the instructor did 
not appeal directly to the public until February of this year, 
when Professor Elliott of the Johns Hopkins University dis- 
cussed before a Baltimore audience the methods of university 
work in the Romance languages.^ To-night, here in Cleveland, 

1 An address delivered at Cleveland, Nov. 17, 1891. 

2 When George Ticknor was inducted into the Smith Professorship at Harvard, 
Aug. 10, 1819, he gave an inaugural address. An extract is given in vol. i., pp. 320, 
321, of " Life, Letters and Journals of George Ticknor," Boston, 1875, 2 vols., 8vo. 

3 See " University Work in the Romance Languages," by A. Marshall Elliott, 
Ph, D., Baltimore. 1891. 



110 COLLEGIATE INSTRUCTION 

it is the collegiate work in those languages which occupies 
our attention. You will pardon me digressions into the Ger- 
manic field also ; since what is true of the Romance is often 
more strikingly true of the Teutonic. 

Looking back over the history of modern foreign language 
instruction in this country, we find that early in the century 
French already had a footing. This preference was due, no 
doubt, to our early political relations with France, and to the 
use of French as the language of diplomacy. Consequently, 
soon after the War of 1812, the Smith Professorship of French 
and Spanish was founded at Harvard College, and in 1816 
George Ticknor was called to be its incumbent. He accepted 
and was inaugurated in 1819. His assistants were foreigners. 
Somewhat later, German, which came into prominence both 
through its use in scientific research and through the fame of 
Goethe and the Romantic School, was also recognized at Har- 
vard, and in 1825 Dr. Follen was called as instructor. While 
not attaining the eminence of Ticknor, the personality of this 
German exile was none the less strongly stamped on the in- 
stitution which honored him. 

Other colleges soon followed the example set by Harvard, 
but much less effectively. Many offered instruction in 
French and German ; few, if any, in Spanish or Italian. The 
course in German was, on the whole, more systematic and 
thorough. Students desired it as a means to advanced work 
at home and abroad, and the teachers, either Americans or 
Germans, were better adapted to the exigencies of the class- 
rooms of those days. Instruction in French, on the other 
hand, suffered both from the lack of interest among the stu- 
dents and from the make-up of the teaching-force, generally 
non-resident and out of touch with the spirit of their sur- 
roundings. And yet, perhaps in both languages, more actual 
benefit to American education was derived from the private 
classes which were formed outside of the college, but in the 
college community, and through which the members of the 



IN THE ROMANCE LANGUAGES. Ill 

academic staff were brought into new worlds of thought and 
opinion. Of such a nature, and peculiarly successful, was the 
work performed by Karl Ruger on the Western Reserve.-' 

This condition of affairs lasted for quite half a century, 
down through the Civil War and beyond that struggle. The 
great industrial activity, which stirred America as well as 
Europe from 1857 to 1873, aided in engrossing the public 
mind in other than educational matters. During this period 
the colleges increased but little either in students or in endow 
ment. The deviations in their methods of instruction and in 
their curriculum were slight. When, therefore, the commu- 
nity turned somewhat from politics and business, and gave its 
attention again to its institutions of learning, it was both sur- 
prised and irritated. The nation had changed ; the colleges 
had not changed. To alleviate its disappointment the body 
politic promptly voted institution and instructor theoretical 
and unpractical, and the college professor saw his former in- 
fluence speedily declining. 

But the national impatience did not content itself with 
criticism and abuse. Substitutes for colleges were sought and 
discovered, and among them one which has peculiarly affected 
the position of foreign languages, the Summer School. Private 
schools of language-teaching, employing the conversational 
method, had existed since 1866. It was the merit of the Sum- 
mer School, conceived not far from the borders of Lake Erie, 
and with a religious purpose in view, to give a prominent place 
to modern languages in its curriculum, and to borrow from the 
private schools the conversational method. The effect of this 
popular movement on our colleges soon became apparent. 
The most progressive educators saw in French and German a 
means of connecting their institutions with the public. It 
was Harvard College again which led the way. In 1874 she 
required for admission an examination in English ; in 1875 

' For an understanding of modern language work between 1830 and 1860 I am 
especially indebted to the late Dr. Seymour of Adelbert College. 



112 COLLEGIATE INSTRtTCTION 

an examination in German or Frencti. Other modifications 
accompanied these changes. Harvard's action has once more 
been followed by many of our larger colleges. 

Close on this concession to public sentiment came a move- 
ment from an entirely different quarter, which has had a no 
less beneficial influence on the study of modern languages. 
In 1876 the Johns Hopkins University was opened. In its 
undergraduate department French and German were allowed, 
in its requirements for admission, as a substitute for Greek 
in the B.A. course. Its graduate department, modelled on 
the German University, included a three-years' course in both 
Romance and Germanic languages. While the aims of these 
courses Avere mainly philological and linguistic, adapted to 
special research, yet the high standard they set, by demanding 
from their students a larger and more thorough knowledge of 
the origin and growth of the language, elevated the aims of 
collegiate instruction and gave the collegiate instructor a 
career which aroused his ambition. Furthermore, the head 
of the department of Romance languages. Professor Elliott, 
conceived the notion of extending the benefits derived from 
the university work beyond the limited number of his own 
students. Mainly owing to his initiative, the Modern Lan- 
guage Association of America was founded, in December, 1883, 
by which all instructors, both collegiate and preparatory, 
were given a common rallying-point. To supplement the 
publications of the Association, and to offer an opportunity 
for original work, as well as for reviews and text-book notices, 
the same instructor began, in January, 1886, the publication of 
the Modem Language Notes. 

Thus modern languages in this country have both an orga- 
nization and a defence ; and under the impetus acquired in 
this manner, they have progressed more in the past five years 
than in any preceding generation. The methods of instruc- 
tion, also, and the relation of modern languages to the college 
curriculum, have been discussed so often and so thoroughly, 



IN THE ROMANCE LANGUAGES. 113 

that it is safe to say a general line of action has been finally 
agreed upon. While the details may be considerably modified 
in the near future, the principles of study and teaching seem 
fixed for some time ahead. 

When we consider, then, in the first place, the advantages 
and object of our profession, we must call to mind the nature 
of the institution in which we work — the American college. 
Of late the community seems somewhat confused regarding 
the province and scope of the college. This confusion is due 
in part, no doubt, to recent discussions on education which 
have caught the eye of the public, but probably more to the 
entrance of new studies into the college curriculum. Of these 
new studies the Romance and Germanic languages form a con- 
siderable part. For this reason the attitude towards the col- 
lege idea of the instructors in those languages becomes of 
interest. If that attitude is to be judged by their articles and 
discussions, the conclusion is evident that they stand by the 
tradition of the purpose of a college course. While the sub- 
jects pursued in college may be greatly increased in number 
and extent by the legitimate demands of modern society, they 
believe that the character of college work must remain the 
same as it has been ; the training and strengthening of the 
mental faculties, the broadening of the judgment, and the dis- 
cipline of the reasoning powers. And that therefore the field 
of collegiate education does not include special investigation, 
on the one hand, or, on the other, the learning of a trade. 
The college should not encroach on the professional school, 
on the business college, or on the school of applied science. 

If we turn back twenty years to the curriculum of the aver- 
age college of good standing, we find there a far more re- 
stricted scheme of study than we do at the present day, while 
the number of years in the course remains the same. It is 
evident, then, that the additions of the past two decades, 
chiefly modern languages and natural science, have gained 
their place at the expense of the former occupants. In the 



114 COLLEGIATE INSTEUCTIOK 

case of modern languages these occupants were mainly Greek 
and Latin. Now, as regards the wisdom of this displacement 
of the classics we have not to argue. It was begun before a 
body of trained instructors in modern languages were to be 
found in this country, and has been carried on with very little 
consultation of them after they did come into being. They 
are not accountable for the present situation, and are not satis- 
fied with it. But it exists, and they must make the best of it.^ 

With this situation in mind, it is clear that the first duty of 
modern language instructors is to preserve, so far as possible, 
the advantages derived from the study of the displaced lan- 
guages, Greek and Latin. Now these advantages are : the 
classification of facts by the association of things related; 
the broadening of the judgment, brought about by the neces- 
sity of linguistic distinctions and the introduction into phases 
of thought different from those of our surroundings ; and the 
reflex action of translation on the ability to command one's 
own vernacular.^ The practice which the memory receives 
from the accumulation of a vocabulary and the acquirement 
of grammatical forms, obviously true of both ancient and 
modern languages, needs here no discussion. 

To apply the first advantage, the classification of facts, to 
the Romance languages. Here the latter fall below the 
ancient. Their syntax is less elaborate, and in the modern 
written sentence there is greater elasticity. Yet considerable 
material for this feature of mental discipline is at hand, and 

1 This statement is not to be considered contradictory of what has been said above 
regarding the conckisions reached by the modern language men. Those conclusions 
are probably final so far as methods are concerned. But they apply strictly to the 
present situation only, a situation which may be indefinitely prolonged. Personally 
I hold to the view that the study of French and German should precede the study of 
Latin and Greek in the preparatory and public schools ; first, because they are sim- 
pler in construction; second, because their literature is adapted to all grades. It is 
absurd, to say the least, that a pupil should be made to read the Iliad or the -^neid 
before he knows even the meaning of art; not to mention the waste of time involved 
by the present order of language study. 

2 See " How to Use Modern Languages as a Means of Mental Discipline," by E. H. 
Babbitt. Publications of the Modern Language Association, vol. vi., pp. 52-63. 



IN THE ROMANCE LANGUAGES. 116 

every -day examples are the distinctions in the use of French 
tenses, and the various offices performed by prepositions, the 
substitute for the case endings of classical inflection — to 
cite only the most general. Less inferior, however, are 
the Romance languages in regard to the second benefit, — the 
effect of linguistic study on the judgment. Apart from the 
initiation of the student into new modes of thought, to be 
considered later on, the construction of the Romance period, 
French, Italian, or Spanish, presents many obstacles, which are 
often the more perplexing because they appear of easy solution. 
The shades of meaning expressed by the relative position of 
words, as of adverbial connectives and adjectives, demand 
constant discrimination on the part of the translator. When 
we add to problems of this nature the greater range of read- 
ing, made possible by the simple syntax and the likeness of 
the Romance vocabulary to the English, through which the 
student comes in contact with a greater variety of expressions, 
of idioms, of proverbs, where the common-sense of genera- 
tions is condensed, it will be seen that the balance does not 
incline so strongly to the side of the ancient languages. Nor 
should, in this connection, elementary facts in etymology be 
overlooked, when they are necessary to explain such confu- 
sion as arises from the double service performed by the 
Romance preposition a, representing both ad and ab of the 
Latin, or the difference in meaning of the French word, whose 
form is the same as that of the English, a difference due to 
the middle ground which it occupies in the line of descent 
from the Latin. All such difficulties, far from being passed 
over in the work of the class-room, should be brought for- 
ward and emphasized by the instructor, with a view to the 
especial training required. 

In the third advantage arising from language study, the 
command over one's vernacular gained by the various mental 
processes set in motion by the act of translation, the Romance 
languages are not inferior to the ancient. It may be ques- 



116 COLLEGIATE INSTRUCTIOH 

tioned whether, in fact, they are not superior. Rapid reading 
gives much more practice in rendering. The mind is on the 
alert to vary the monotony of the English version by the use 
of synonyms, of parallel idioms, of inversions. In the mod- 
ern language the written period does not vary so widely from 
the forms of conversation. There results, as a consequence, 
a greater range of sentiment and phrase, from the familiar 
dialogue of friends to the polished period of the essayist. 
Often excellence of style in the foreign author incites to 
rivalry in the translation, for we can, without much effort, 
appreciate the taste and refinement of a tongue so near to our 
own as the French. 

With this question of style is closely connected that of 
ideas. Admitting that the works of antiquity, which have 
come down to us, reflect the thought and tendencies of the 
whole people, yet the civilization of the Greek and Roman 
world, its mental, moral, and social environment, is so 
utterly alien to our modern existence in a New World, as 
to render doubtful the success of the best students in gain- 
ing from ancient literature, during a college course, a sat- 
isfactory conception of it. The influence of Christianity, 
subtle and permeating, has placed manifold barriers between 
classical ideals and those of our own times. Compare Racine, 
for instance, with his Greek models. On the other hand, 
the spirit and opinions of Romance and Germanic writers are 
intelligible to the American mind. They are discussing sub- 
jects which affect our existence as well as theirs, and from 
standpoints of view new to us. We therefore receive not- 
only the profit which comes from the treatment of living 
problems by contemporaries, whose surroundings differ some- 
what from ours, but also the mental discipline acquired by 
the translation of these shades of opinion — keener apprecia- 
tion in thought, and finer distinctions in rendering. 

So much for the educational legacies of the ancient to the 
modern tongues. Considerable as these are, they hardly equal 



IN THE ROMANCE LANGUAGES. 117 

the advantages peculiar to the latter alone, or at least which 
are of far greater importance in the latter. Let us choose the 
most general and apparent. The first, as already intimated, is 
the improvement of the judgment by initiation into European 
phases of contemporaneous thought. Without in any way 
holding in light esteem the lessons of practical life derived 
from the study of the past, we are safe in assuming that, 
after all, our chief interest lies in the tendencies of our own 
times, the development of the society to which we belong. 
While this is true of the world at large, it is pre-eminently 
true of the United States, that compound of humanity, where 
the body politic has absorbed so many elements unknown to 
our Anglo-Saxon progenitors. To understand the traditions 
and bent of these elements is our great concern, and there is no 
more direct way to this understanding than by the study of 
the literatures in which they are represented. It is history, 
then, in the guise of language, and the history of the society 
of to-day. 

In the Middle Ages the study of mankind was comparatively 
simple. No other than medigeval thought demanded con- 
sideration, and that thought was practically uniform through- 
out Christendom. With the Renaissance and the Reformation 
came new conceptions from another world, and new springs 
of action, which gradually did away with the old. But the 
movements attending the French Revolution and the rise 
of the Romantic school in literature and art revived again 
the study of mediaeval times, fused their spirit with that 
of antiquity, and brought the masses in contact with both 
epochs by the evolution of democracy. Whatever may be said 
of the power of single intellects at the present day, it is evident 
that the stock of ideas within reach of the majority of the 
human race is increasing with every revolution of the earth. 
And the individual who remains in ignorance of the thought 
of foreign nations during the last hundred years, has no 
power within himself to understand his own environment or 



118 COLLEGIATE INSTRUCTION 

to forecast that of the generation following. Education has 
become cosmopolitan, broad as well as deep. 

What is true of the individual is true of the nation, the 
aggregate of individuals. If we look at the civilized world 
to-day, we see that its universal effort is to bring together 
its inhabitants. The whole trend of invention is to that end. 
In towns, horse railroads give way to electric. Between com- 
munities, steam communication by land and water is being 
perfected with the sole purpose of making better time. And 
the world grows daily smaller. Nations are becoming neigh- 
bors, and hence competitors. Already the misfortunes or 
mistakes of one redound to the immediate profit of the others. 
A century ago transportation was slow, inventions were few, 
men's minds worked leisurely. Ideas were carefully con- 
sidered before they were given to the public, and the public 
of that time was the thinker's own countrymen, who had 
abundant opportunity to reap the first fruits of his medita- 
tions. To-day it has become a national necessity to learn im- 
mediately the scientific discoveries and the economical pur- 
poses of all mankind. The people which neglects to study, 
and to imitate when expedient, the plans of other peoples, 
falls behind in the struggle for existence. And what holds 
good of material life holds equally good of the intellectual. 

The second advantage which the study of foreign literatures 
can bring to us Americans, does not pertain to the domain of 
practical existence, yet appeals no less to national pride. It 
relates to our own literature ; not to its substance, but to its 
form. It is the nature of a new people to have ideas in 
abundance, a desire to immediately impart them to the world, 
and, on the other hand, to have but an imperfect command 
over language, the vehicle of expression. What is lacking 
is refinement and taste, a cultivation of the aesthetic side — 
style. In our fine arts, as painting and music, the conscious 
lack of technique forces our artists to emigrate for long periods 
to centres of skill and taste in foreign lands. The beneficial 



IN THE ROMANCE LANGUAGES. 119 

results of this willingness to learn from abroad are espe- 
cially manifest in the great progress of American archi- 
tecture, which now presents a distinctively national type. 
( So in literature, speaking broadly, we have the thought, but 
the form escapes us. Nor shall we reach a period of literary 
development until some correct standard has been established 
which shall serve as intermediary between our authors and 
the public. Technique must first be learned, and here, as in 
the arts, there are no better models than the Continental, and 
in particular the French. That our leading writers are awake 
to this quality of French literature, has been often illustrated 
in the past few months by the translations which have come 
from their pens.^ 

And not only in the structure of the period can we learn 
much from French literature. In the plan of a literary work 
we lack too often the harmony of proportions and the clear- 
ness of outline which are essential to its continued favor 
with the public. While this is true of all departments of 
letters, there is no branch in which our weak constructive 
power is more clearly seen than in our drama. As a people 
we seem to feel the dramatic instinct to an unusual degree. 
In the fusion of the nations taking place on this continent 
there must be the foundation laid for the greatest develop- 
ment of theatrical composition ever known. Yet no one 
attends the performance of our more serious plays without 
being surprised at the combination of superabundant material 
with a most puerile and crude conception of the playwright's 

1 I am aware of the stumbling-blocks which an intimate acquaintance with foreign 
literatures places in the way of style in one's vernacular. It is true that they al- 
ways cultivate taste. It is also true that the moment the student arrives at the 
point where he reads a foreign language without translating it to himself — flie 
ideal of college instruction, and also the only way to appreciate all tlie excellencies 
of foreign literature — at that moment he begins to weaken his command over his own 
tongue. But a college course only is under discussion here, and where that leads, as 
it does in but few institutions, beyond this limit, constant caution on the part of the 
instructor will tend to diminish the danger. The same objection holds good, of 
course, against advanced work in composition. 



120 " COLLEGIATE INSTRUCTION 

art. Taste and elementary principles of stage construction 
are alike wanting. But here, again, we notice that our 
younger authors are imitating the shorter pieces of the French 
theatre, and may thus lead the way to a higher standard. 

To sum up, then, this division of our subject. The purpose 
of collegiate instruction in the Romance languages is not alone 
the mental training which can be derived from that instruc- 
tion, but also the education along social and aesthetic lines 
which a knowledge of foreign literatures affords us. To profit 
by this general culture the student should be required to 
apply to his own surroundings the thought of the texts in 
hand. And he should be constantly reminded that in these 
texts he has artistic productions which owe their form, not 
to accidental inspiration, but to certain laws of expression and 
construction. So that every college in the land may become 
a living force in the social and literary development of the 
nation. 

There remain to be considered the curriculum of the mod- 
ern language course and the routine of class-room instruction. 
As regards the curriculum, it follows from the position already 
taken, that the texts used should be chosen from among those 
which bear most strongly on the present social conditions, 
and which excel in thought and style, not forgetting the most 
important dramatic works. In French these requirements 
are met by the authors of the Romantic and realistic schools 
of this century. In Spanish and Italian, owing to the small 
quantity of good contemporaneous material, it will be neces- 
sary to supplement recent literature by " Don Quixote " and 
the "Divina Comedia," productions of a universal bearing. 
It is also to be borne in mind that in the literature of this 
century is found a larger vocabulary and a greater range of 
grammatical constructions. Composition, after the first stages, 
should be based, so far as possible, on the reading. When the 
modern tongue is learned the student can turn back with 
profit to past periods of the language, where the chief interest 



IN THE ROMANCE LANGUAGES. 121 

is that of literary history. Literature should be the object 
of advanced work in college. Philological research belongs 
rather to the professional school. 

The methods of modern language-teaching have been the 
subject of debate for many years, and still differ according to 
the instructor's conception of the college course. The growing 
opinion seems to be the conservative one, or perhaps radical, 
according to the standpoint of view. At the beginning of the 
course too much attention cannot be given to the forms of 
the language and its pronunciation. Morphology and syntax 
must be thoroughly understood before the thought of the 
sentence can be rightly appreciated. And here the elements 
of composition can be made to serve as an auxiliary. Since 
grammar has no life apart from the language, reading comes in 
properly at the very outset. At the same time should com- 
mence the exercise in pronunciation. For in the study of 
literature, which includes the study of style, it is essential to 
know not only the thought of the written period, but how that 
period sounds. Here the aid of elementary phonetics can be 
brought in, and the eye made to supplement the ear. But in 
acquiring pronunciation we must bear in mind that it is, like 
composition, a means to reach the goal, and not the goal itself. 
That goal is education by the study of literature. The train- 
ing of the physical organs includes too small an element of 
education to consume any considerable part of a college 
course, and the powers of the mind are not noticeably in- 
creased by the repetition of ordinary conceptions in tongues 
other than our own. With a picked body of advanced students 
the instructor may be able to use the foreign language to ad- 
vantage in the class-room, but where skill in speaking has a 
commercial value, and is therefore an end in itself, the profes- 
sional school or the business college should supply the time 
and training. The advantage to be derived from an advanced 
course in composition can also be fittifigly called in question 
in considering collegiate instruction,. 



122 COLLEGIATE INSTRUCTION 

Coming under the head of method, but rarely employed by 
the instructor, is the aid in class-work which can be derived 
from charts and photographs. Maps showing the physical 
features of the country, plans of towns, views of scenery, of 
streets, of buildings, are of great service in introducing the 
student into the surroundings of his author and in impressing 
on him the spirit of the narrative. We see how such mate- 
rial is the principal element in the study of archaeology. But 
modern languages have the advantage, not only in the com- 
pleteness of their art and nature, but also in the possibility of 
catching institutions and manners in their every-day activity, 
as a weekly market or a crowded thoroughfare. The scenery of 
Lake Geneva is still that described in " La Nouvelle Heloise." 
The main street of a French provincial town has not changed 
since the days of Eugenie Grandet ; while Gothic cathedrals 
and Eenaissance houses will still outlive many generations of 
poets and novelists. The library is the laboratory of the lan- 
guages. Illustrations should be their apparatus. The ideal 
class-room is the one so arranged that the student, on crossing 
the threshold, should find himself transported to the country 
and customs of the people whose thoughts he is studying. 

These, then, are the chief objects and methods of modern 
language work. In them is found much that is old and lit- 
tle that is new, and the new arises mainly from the historical 
epoch to which the studies apply. Far from weakening the 
mental powers of the individual by anticipating in college the 
commercial details of life, the instructors in modern languages 
insist on the careful cultivation of those powers. From the 
very nature of their profession they are brought to realize 
the necessity, in the world of business, of a trained intellect 
and a broad judgment, whether to meet the competition of 
other nations, or to lead the way to the prosperity of our own. 
They see plainly, by their daily contact with living prob- 
lems of society, that the country has increasing need of a 
large body of thinkers who can grasp the general trend of 



IN THE ROMANCE LANGUAGES, 123 

contemporaneous movenieuts, and weigh carefully the influ- 
ence of the part on the action of the wliole. The time has 
passed when a few minds can sway the world's destinies. 
The complexity of our present civilization demands many 
masters who work in unison. The forces of nature which man 
has set free since the beginning of this century must be dom- 
inated by the human reason, disciplined to the highest point, 
if their liberty is not to prove fatal to society itself. And to 
supply men of quick thought and prompt action, who can see 
the moments of danger and meet them, should be the con- 
stant aim of our institutions of learning:. 



HOW TO USE MODERN LANGUAGES AS A 
MEANS OE /MENTAL DISCIPLINE.^ 

/ 

BY MR. B. H. BABBITT, COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 

I COME before you this morning to represent the unorna- 
mental, prosaic side of our work — the undercurrent, so to 
speak. Pedagogical papers have been read and discussed 
before this Association till it would seem that little could be 
left to say in this department ; yet I feel encouraged to pre- 
sent another, for the very reason that the discussion of these 
papers has been more active and universal than that of any 
other class of papers whatever. And I regard this as a most 
wholesome sign of our professional spirit. Eor no teacher 
ought ever to forget, however attractive he finds the search 
for the principle of the Germanic accentuation, or the meaning 
of the second part of " Faust," that he is not by profession 
in the first place a philologist or a man of letters, but a 
teacher, whose first duty is toward his pupils, and whose 
work is to apply whatever he can find in philology or litera- 
ture to the task of supplying, to the best of his power, these 
bright young minds which come to him for instruction, with 
that which will most help them to fill their future place in 
the world. And so I ask you. to listen to another chapter of 
prose, in confidence that, however much we may be inter- 
ested — as I am sure we all are — in the " Stressed Vowels 
in Beowulf," or the " Spanish Pastoral Romances," every one 
who is worthy to be a member of this Association is eager for 

1 Read before the Modern Language Association of America, and reprinted with 
the permission of the author. • 



, HOW TO USE MODERN LANGUAGES. 125 

any new idea which will help him to do this important work 
iu a better manner ; and if I can present any such ideas, or 
start a discussion which shall bring them, I shall feel that the 
undercurrent has not come to the surface in vain. 

I invite your attention, then, to a line of thought into 
which I have been drawn by observing the increasing extent 
to which, for practical reasons principally, the study of the 
modern languages is superseding the classics in our schools. 
Whatever opinion we may hold as to the advantage or dis- 
advantage of this plan, we must recognize the fact ; and it be- 
hooves us more than any other teachers to consider how we 
shall shape our instruction so as to do the most for our pupils 
under existing circumstances. This change is a part of a 
more general movement, that has not taken place without a 
great deal of active and even violent discussion, the outcome 
of which seems to strengthen the theory that no one thing is 
a sine qua non in education, but that a certain amount of work 
properly done by a certain faculty of the mind will give about 
the same increase of strength and readiness, whether the 
work be done in ancient or modern languages, or mathemat- 
ics, or history, or science. The question is only the practical 
one of the adjustment of means to ends, and it ought to be 
a cause of congratulation to a broad-mii\ded educator, to find 
that he has a larger latitude than was formerly believed pos- 
sible, to shape his instruction more directly toward the prac- 
tical needs of life, without fear that the quality of mind 
produced will be inferior in consequence.^ 

Our questions, then, are : What discipline is given by the, 
study of ancient languages ? Where the modern languages 
must take their place, can we attain the same ends in the 
same manner ? If not, how far can we attain them ? If not 

1 I do not wish to be understood as taking in any way a position of opposition to 
or disparagement of classical studies. I do believe that a man may have a liberal 
education without knowing the Latin or Greek languages ; but I also firmly believe 
that there is no other so direct and convenient way to such an education as by their 
use. 



126 HOW TO USE MODERN LANGUAGES 

in the same manner, what changes in method must we 
make ? 

I wish to understand by mental discipline the exercise of 
some faculty of the mind, which results in increasing the power 
or readiness of that faculty. We used to hear more than we 
do now about discipline of the will. The idea was that it is 
good for a boy to do things that are hard for him, simply 
because they are hard ; and the harder they are, the better for 
him. There is some truth in this view, but we are finding 
out that to a mind of average intelligence, if the ideas are 
properly presented in their right sequence, scarcely anything 
is hard. Pupils find difficulties in their studies because it 
is impossible for the teacher to follow their mental processes 
closely enough to see what their needs are, or oftener because 
he does not know what their needs are if he can follow them, 
or because the pupil is in a class which is going ahead faster 
than he is prepared to follow ; in other words, the poorer the 
adjustment of means to ends in the instruction, the better the 
discipline for the pupil's will. I really believe there is some 
compensation to be found in this for the vast amount of poor 
teaching that is done in our institutions ; but I incline to 
think that there is just as much discipline for the will, and of 
a more wholesome kind, in doing work which the student can 
do, and doing more of it — using the will in keeping up the 
pace, rather than in struggling with difficulties that are be- 
yond one's powers. 

Under my definition would come also the training of spe- 
cial faculties or groups of faculties for a special practical 
end ; or, in other words, the cultivation of an art. This kind 
of training is not considered an essential part of a liberal edu- 
cation, and is not provided for at institutions whose only 
object is to give such education. Still, it is hard to draw the 
line in some cases, and say whether a study is to be reckoned 
in this class or not. 

We all know how entirely a mere fluency in speaking a Ian- 



AS A MEANS OF MENTAL DISCIPLINE. 127 

guage belongs to this class. It requires no higher order of in- 
tellect, and no more exercise of the judgment, to speak French 
or German, than to play the banjo ; and both can be learned 
equally well in *' six easy lessons." I am accustomed also to 
say sometimes that both are, for the average American citizen, 
of about equal importance ; but tliis is only a jocular over- 
statement of a nevertheless very serious fact.^ 

Skill in reading a language is also an art, but one of a much 
more intellectual kind, calling for a great deal of exercise of 
the reasoning faculty, and rarely acquired satisfactorily until 
that faculty is well developed. It is this art which, on 
account of its practical value, is the primary object of most of 
our instruction in modern languages, and it is the fact that 
we have to give so much consideration to the art as such that 
makes the great difference between the work of instruction in 
the ancient and modern languages. I shall come back to this 
point later. 

Of the faculties which we wish to strengthen on account of 
their universal application to all studies, the principal are the 
memory and the judgment. Of these the former is relatively 
much less important than formerly. At least we do not need 
quite the same kind of memory that our ancestors did, for 
while the memory of the relations of facts is quite as impor- 
tant as ever, tliat of the facts themselves can be more easily 
dispensed with, because we put all our facts in print nowadays. 

The faculty which is by far the most important of the human 
mind, and which we most earnestly strive to develop and per- 

1 I suspect that some things I said in the discussion of the paper are likely to give 
a wrong impression as to my position regarding the teaching of pronunciation. I 
always give a good deal of attention to the matter from the outset; explain the diffi- 
culties carefully, even going into the physiology of the subject when it will help, as it 
often will. I try to work in constant pr.actice in pronouncing and listening, and 
insist on the same degree of accuracy in this as in translation, as far as possible 
lulthout special attempt at training the organs of the students. I prob.ably differ from 
some of my foreign-born colleagues in maintaining that this is as far as the ordinary 
circumstances allow us to go without taking time from more important work, and 
that the whole matter of pronunciation is of relative small practical importance in 
most cases. 



128 HOW TO USE MODERN LANGUAGES 

feet in our pupils, is the faculty of judgment, or the reason- 
ing faculty (I am not trying to be psychologically exact), the 
faculty whose perfection gives what we call a logical mind — 
a mind which has a ready perception of the relations of 
things, and is not likely to be misled by false reasoning. 

For developing this faculty the value of language study has 
always been recognized, and it is safe to say that although 
other studies may also contribute to this object, they can 
never entirely take the place of language study. This is true 
because language is the medium by which our thinking 
processes are carried on. I will not say that all thinking is 
necessarily carried on in words, but as soon as we wish to 
communicate our thoughts to others we must use language. 
And we do not go far wrong when we accept a man's power in 
the use of language as the measure of his mental develop- 
ment. I do not refer now to conventional correctness or ele- 
gance of diction, but to the ability to say what is meant in an 
effective way. Many a rustic preacher or stump orator can 
express himself in words which may bring a smile to the face 
of the purist, but which convey unmistakably the conclusions 
of a reasoning power of no mean order. And in general we 
may say that as far as a person uses clear and forcible lan- 
guage, his thinking processes are also clear and direct. The 
converse may not be true ; but in our dealings with our pupils 
we are practically obliged to assume that it is, because the 
only way we have of getting at what they think is through 
what they say. 

Here, to my mind, is found a sufficient explanation of the 
facts that the examination in English for admission to college 
is so critical, and that the instruction in English in our com- 
mon schools is so unsatisfactory. You can load a boy to the 
muzzle with facts and dates, and he will pass in history; be 
sure he understands all the problems in Wentworth, and he 
will pass in geometry ; make him read all that Caesar, Cicero, 
and Virgil have written, and he will pass in Latin ; but let 



AS A MEANS OF MENTAL DISCIPLINE. 129 

him sit down for an hour to put his own thoughts on paper, 
and if his mind is too immature to enter college, there will 
be evidence of it on the paper when he goes. Hill's 
Rhetoric and practice in composition-writing will often do 
much towards removing disabilities in formal expression, 
and enough such work should be given to meet the needs 
of each case ; but these things in themselves do no more to 
reach the bottom of the difficulty than other lines of study do. 
Often a boy who has failed in English will spend a year trav- 
elling in Europe, or in general study, without an hour of 
formal instruction in English, and come back next year and 
pass creditably, simply on account of a general advancement 
in maturity of mind during the year. 

The same relations of things hold in the common schools ; 
what we need there is not more hours devoted to formal 
instruction in English ; this only touches the surface of the 
matter. Formal instruction there should be, enough to make 
sure that the pupils are reasonably free from faults and able 
to use the language properly in proportion to their years and 
intellectual development; but further than this the time is 
better spent on matter than on form. Every teacher should 
be incidentally a teacher of English, and whatever is learned 
ought to be learned in a logical and coherent form from the 
outset. Of course where no language but English is studied, 
a good share of time may well be given to the study of gram- 
mar and the analysis of language, which would come incident- 
ally in connection with the study of other languages. 

The most valuable thing in the way of discipline which 
comes from the study of a foreign language is its influence in 
improving the pupil's command of his own. Of course this 
means the improvement in general judgment and discrimina- 
tion which is evinced by a finer linguistic sense, which again 
finds its expression through the ordinary medium of thought. 
We modern language teachers are more likely to overlook 
this most important point than our classical colleagues, be- 



130 HOW TO USE MODERN LANGUAGES 

cause in our work the practical use of the language is so 
much more important than in theirs. 

Let us now examine in detail the advantages which a per- 
son who has taken the ordinary Bachelor's degree has derived 
from the study of classics. Aside from the discipline of the 
will, which comes from any hard work, we find the following : 
(1) His memory for facts has been strengthened by commit- 
ting paradigms and learning a new vocabulary. (2) He has 
been obliged to formulate pretty distinctly a regular system 
of classified facts, — the facts which form the material of the 
grammar, — classified in due form under chapter, section, sub- 
section, and so on. This means that he has learned to remem- 
ber things by their relations — a power which can hardly be 
acquired without practice in forming or using such classified 
systems. You will see with a little reflection that under the 
old plan of the college course, this was the only, or at least 
the first and most important, classification of the kind that the 
student had to make. (3) He has had his judgment broadened 
and strengthened by constant calls upon it to account for 
things which cannot be accounted for without its exercise. 
He has learned the very important lesson that two things 
which look just exactly alike may be quite different if they 
stand in different relations to other things ; and that men 
who think in different ways from himself, have also ways of 
expressing their thoughts which differ from his own ways. 
I do not need to dwell upon this point, for volumes have 
been written upon it, and it must be very familiar to you all. 
(4) His long practice in translation has given him a readiness 
and certainty in the use of his own language which he could 
hardly have acquired in any other way. (5) He may have 
learned, though he probably has not, to read Latin, and still 
less probably, Greek, well enough to use them in further lit- 
erary or scientific studies, if he should have occasion. 

Then we may add that the contact with " the best that has 
been thought and said in the world," which he can hardly 



AS A MEANS OF MENTAL DISCIPLINE. 131 

have escaped as an incidental to his language study, has done 
much to broaden his mind and make a more complete man of 
him. 

I wish to take up these topics in order, and inquire what the 
modern languages have to offer in place of the classics in each 
case. 

With regard to the first point, there is probably about as 
much exercise for the verbal memory in one case as the other. 
The modern languages have fewer paradigms, but offset this 
by a larger number of words in the general vocabulary. 

Secondly, it is evident that to a modern mind there is less 
machinery, so to speak, belonging to a modern than to an 
ancient language. It is possible to learn a modern language 
well enough for practical purposes without knowing anything 
about the classification of conditional sentences, or the uses 
of the subjunctive, or the objective and subjective genitive. 
Moreover, those who study modern languages for practical 
purposes are sure to have had plenty of experience in making 
systematic classifications in connection with scientific studies. 
From this fact, taken in connection with the other fact that 
most of our students do after all get a good grounding in tech- 
nical grammar through the classics before they come to 
modern languages, we find the tendency growing to teach 
modern languages with the minimum of technical grammar 
and the maximum of practice. This course is, I think, justi- 
fied by the circumstances ; yet I would never forget that the 
conscious analysis of processes of thought involved in gram- 
mar study is a very valuable means of discipline, for which 
no other one thing is a substitute, and I would have all stu- 
dents, if they have time for it, — as most of them have, — get 
a good view, at some time of their course, of classified gram- 
mar as such. If they take the classics, well and good ; then 
it conies of itself, and the modern languages should be taken 
by such students with as little grammar as possible. If they 
are scientific students, the reducing of the facts of grammar 



132 HOW TO USE MODERN LANGUAGES 

to a scientific classification will not be a difficult task for them. 
I think we shall find that, required a certain grade of matu- 
rity of mind, together with a certain proficiency in a given 
number of practical subjects, the end can be attained in about 
the same time, with the same amount of work, by several dif- 
ferent methods of combining studies. 

Under the third head also we find the modern languages 
inferior to the ancient in that they do not so inevitably force 
upon the pupil from the outset the discipline sought. The 
difficulties to be overcome, and the discipline obtained from 
overcoming them, are the same in kind in the modern lan- 
guages as in the ancient, but much less in degree. In both 
cases they arise from the difference in the manner of living 
and thinking between the people whose language we are 
studying and ourselves. In the case of the classical lan- 
guages, these differences are so great that the greater part of 
the student's effort is absorbed in the attempt, with all the 
aids of grammar, notes, and lexicon, to get any clear solution 
of them at all ; and it is safe to say that a great majority of 
our students never get beyond these aids. In the modern lan- 
guages boys often pass this point before the end of their 
second year's study of the language. I think, however, that 
if the proper pace is kept up with the work, the student 
meets quite as many opportunities for the exercise of the 
judgment in a year's work in- modern languages as in the 
classics, though he must cover many times the number of 
pages in order to find them. The difficulties of this kind lie 
higher up, so to speak, in the modern languages than in the 
ancient. They are not so often connected with single words, 
but oftener with whole sentences, idioms, or groups of words ; 
they are not so tangible and unavoidable at the outset. This, 
as well as the considerations discussed under the preceding 
head, is, to my mind, a strong argument in favor of having 
the classics precede the modern languages, where there is 
time for both. 



AS A MEANS OF MENTAL DISCIPLINE. 133 

I now come to translation, whioli, alter all has been said 
and done, is and must be the central point of all language 
instruction, except that which falls to the so-called " natural 
method " in its proper sphere, where it is extremely valuable 
— I mean, of course, the nursery. I am not going into argu- 
ments on this point. I know that the ideal of attainment in 
a foreign language is to be able to read it like one's own, 
without translation ; I know, too, that much can be done, 
under favorable circumstances, in teaching the use of a lan- 
guage as an art, by using it without translation from the out- 
set ; but I think you will generally agree with me that such 
favorable conditions are seldom or never realized in our school 
and college work, that the ideal mentioned can be better 
attained, at least by students who begin the study of a lan- 
guage at an age beyond childhood, through translation, and, 
what is still more important, the other method causes the 
student to lose the greatest disciplinary advantage in study- 
ing the language at all ; namely, the improvement in the 
command of his own language which translation gives him. 
After a great deal of experience in teaching both ancient and 
modern languages, I have come to the conclusion that the 
modern have certain advantages as a medium for drill in trans- 
lation which go far towards making up for their inferiority as 
a means of discipline in some other respects. A Latin or 
Greek word generally means something quite foreign to the 
mind of the American boy, and until he knows the thing he 
can form no adequate conception of the word's meaning. A 
French or German word, on the contrary, stands much oftener 
for something which he knows perfectly well, and he can be 
held to much stricter account in his rendering than is possible 
in the classics. For instance, take the Latin word tunica, or 
the Greek xniav. He may have been told, or have found in 
his classical dictionary, if he has one, just what kind of a gar- 
ment this was ; but the chances are ten to one that he has not, 
and that he always renders it tunic, without much notion of 



134 HOW TO USE MODERN LANGUAGES 

its cut, and that the teacher always accepts that rendering. 
But take the French word chemise, or the German Rock ; he 
knows what these stand for and renders them by the correct 
English word ; and if he finds that the context shows that one 
of them refers to a garment worn by a woman, he knows that 
he must vary his translation accordingly. The same thing is 
true with more abstract words and idioms ; and this makes it 
possible to begin with a class on a standard of clearness and 
accuracy of conception and rendering which is unattainable 
with Latin and Greek till after long study, and practically is 
seldom reached in our schools at all. 

A second advantage of the modern languages is that they 
allow more time relatively to be given to translation at sight 
in the class-room ; and as the words stand for things more 
familiar, and the meaning of a strange word is more often 
evident from the context, they allow more thoughtful and in- 
telligent work of this kind to be done. To say nothing of the 
fact that facility in reading a language at sight is the most 
directly useful thing obtained by its study, the discipline 
gained by this kind of practice is wonderfully sharpening to 
the judgment, and the kind of questions which arise come 
nearer to those of practical life than any others within my 
knowledge in the whole round of academic studies. The 
pupil is constantly called upon to form an opinion of the 
meaning of a word which he would not know if it stood alone, 
but which he has help to understand, varying in degree from 
a mere clew to absolute certainty, from the context or from a 
related word which he knows. This work is not blind guess- 
ing ; it is legitimate reasoning from the known to the un- 
known, and can be watched and guided and cultivated as well 
as any other logical process. It is pre-eminently a natural 
method ; it is the process by which we learn all new words in 
our own language which stand for conceptions beyond actual 
material things. This power of reasoning out the meaning 
of words from the context can be cultivated to an extent 



AS A MEANS OF MENTAL DISCIPLINE. 135 

hardly credible to one who never tried it. I always work for 
it with my pupils consciously, letting them know the object 
in view. I often say that I regard it as a greater fault to 
look in the dictionary for a word whose meaning is evident 
from the context, than to look up one not so evident and then 
forget it. 

Suppose, now, that the pupil has a clear understanding of 
the French sentence ; his work is only half done ; he has then 
to make English of it. Here the difficulty is that the pupil 
will render words without much regard to their sense when 
taken in connection with the whole. This the teacher should 
refuse absolutely to allow. The aim should be first to get a 
clear conception of what the author means, and then, bearing 
in mind that nothing has often been said in French or Ger- 
man which cannot be said equally well in English, insist on 
having an English rendering which expresses the idea cor- 
rectly, and does no violence to the English idiom. Of course 
this presupposes that the teacher's command of the English 
idiom is better than his pupil's, a condition unfortunately far 
too seldom fulfilled in our schools. Of course, other things 
being equal, a man who cannot think ahead of his pupils in 
their own medium of thought is not so fit to lead them in it 
as one who can. 

This thought leads closely to my next head, the matter of 
•pace. I think no one will deny that the amount of work 
done in modern languages, in proportion to the time spent, in 
the average of our schools, is unsatisfactory. This comes in 
very many cases from the fact that the pace is set by a man 
who, from his imperfect command of English, cannot take a 
class over the ground fast enough when English is the class- 
room medium ; and if he tries to shield his incompetency be- 
hind the " natural method," makes a still worse failure in this 
respect. In other eases the modern languages are taught as a 
side subject by some worthy professor of Latin or Christian 
Evidences, who is accustomed to the deliberateness of the old 



136 HOW TO USE MODERN LANGUAGES 

classic methods, and too often does not know enough of the 
language he is trying to teach to be master of the situation. 

Now, if there is any one study in which this question of 
pace is important, it is in the modern languages. For, until 
the pupil has acquired a good practical reading knowledge, he 
can neither make a practical use of the language, nor gain the 
same amount of discipline as is to be obtained from classical 
studies ; for, as I have already pointed out, the opportunities 
for discipline are less numerous, and lie at a more advanced 
stage in the practical knowledge of the language, in the 
modern than in the ancient languages. And this practical 
reading knowledge depends directly upon the amount of 
ground that can be intelligently got over by the pupil. 
Moreover, as things are, we all know that students are more 
likely to get into habits of dawdling in this than in any other 
subject. Of course there is work in which time must be sacri- 
ficed to accuracy, but I believe that the work in modern lan- 
guages is not of this kind ; that it is possible to combine the 
highest degree of accuracy with a much better pace than is 
now the rule, and that the contrary course is likely to disgust 
capable students, simply because it does not give them enough 
to do. The secret is to waste no time in repetition of what 
the pupil already knows ; when a word or idiom is once 
learned no time should be wasted with it, but when it coines 
up it should be passed without comment, and all energies 
bent toward grappling with the new difficulties as they come. 
The man who has the real teacher's instinct, and is constantly 
feeling the minds of his pupils, can follow this process very 
closely, and give his pupils a sense of certainty regarding 
what they already know, which makes a very sure foundation 
on which to build higher. And a student who knows whether 
he knows a thing or not, is able to work at a much higher rate 
of speed than he who is not thus certain. It is this kind of 
self-assurance, and the rapid, clear-cut work which comes with 
it, which I find translation work in the modern languages so 
well adapted to give. 



AS A ]\rEANS OF MENTAL DISCIPLINE. 137 

For the last point, I will only say briefly that the modern 
languages, as well as the ancient, open up to us the culture 
and intellectual life of other peoples, great in their way, as 
were the Greeks and Romans in theirs. If the differences 
from our own way of living and thinking are not so startling, 
their very nearness to us gives them a still greater interest, 
which increases with the increasing maturity of the student, 
and grows stronger the deeper it leads into the absorbing 
complexity of modern life. 

And this brings me to my final thought, which is that the 
study of modern life and the language in which it is crystal- 
lized, is not milk for babes, but meat for strong men ; and 
the work of instruction in this department is worthy of as 
high a 2')lace as any in the college curriculum ; and I hope and 
trust that the time is speedily coming when the practical 
American mind will come to a realizing sense of this, and the 
problem will be taken up by practical American teachers and 
wrought out in a practical American fashion. 



THE TEACHING OF FRENCH AND GERMAN IN 
OUR PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS.^ 

BY MR. C. H. GRANDGENT, DIRECTOR OF MODERN LANGUAGE 
INSTRUCTION IN THE BOSTON HIGH AND LATIN SCHOOLS. 

By " our " schools I mean those of Massachusetts ; and 
when I say "high schools," I am thinking especially of insti- 
tutions that are not engaged in preparing pupils for college 
entrance examinations. Let us take it for granted, further, 
that a foreign language occupies, in the average high school 
course, some three hours a week for three years. It is obvious 
enough that we cannot do everything in this time : we are 
obliged to devote ourselves particularly to some one part of 
the subject, and our choice must be determined, in the first 
place, by our possibilities, and, next, by the purpose we have 
in mind. My intention is to examine briefly the five chief 
branches of modern language study, with a view to ascertain- 
ing which of them we can teach, and which of these latter we 
can most profitably pursue. I shall consider the five topics 
in the following order : speaking, writing, grammar, transla- 
tion, reading. 

First comes speaking. I am often asked : " Can we teach 
pupils to talk French and German ? " Let us see. We know 
that the ability to use a language for the purpose of commu- 
nicating ideas can be gained only through long-continued 
practice. The ear, the vocal organs, the memory, the reason- 

1 Read at meeting of Massachusetts Association of Classical and High School 
Teachers, December, 1891. Reprinted from School and College, with the permission 
of the publishers. 



THE TEACHING OF FRENCH AND GERMAN. 139 

ing powers, the will, must all receive a special and thorough 
training. Hearing others speak will not do : we must speak 
ourselves. This is a case, if there ever was one, where the 
motto fit fabricando faber exactly hits the nail on the head. 
Now let us suppose that a class of twenty-five pupils, neglect- 
ing all else, spends its whole time in " conversation ; " let us 
say that each recitation period consists of fifty minutes, and 
that the class recites three times a week ; let us suppose, also, 
for the sake of the argument, that the instructor talks only 
half of the time. What is the result ? If the hours are 
equitably divided, every pupil speaks for three minutes a 
week, or two hours yearly, or a quarter of a day during his 
entire public school career. When we reflect that it takes us, 
with fully an hour's exercise per diem, ten or fifteen years to 
master our native tongue, we can perhaps estimate the amount 
of skill that is to be produced by six-hours' practice scattered 
over a term of three years. It will then be unnecessary to 
discuss the question whether or not the ability to speak 
French or German is a desirable and proper object for a pub- 
lic school course. By all this I do not, in the least, intend to 
discourage the use of a foreign language in the class-room : 
my only purpose is to show that we cannot make speaking 
our chief aim, and that we must accept this fact once for 
all, and shape our methods accordingly. If, however, so- 
called " conversation " ought not to be regarded as an end in 
itself, it is certainly a most valuable auxiliary. There are at 
least four reasons why we should cultivate it : in the first 
place, it satisfies a frequently expressed desire on the part of 
the public, and as the public supports the schools, its wishes 
should be heeded ; secondly, classes do not correctly appre- 
ciate what they read (especially if their text is either metrical 
in form or colloquial in style) unless they know how it sounds ; 
thirdly, the actual use of the foreign tongue invariably inter- 
ests the pupils, giving them a sense of mastery that nothing 
else can bring ; and, lastly, exercises of this kind stimulate 



140 THE TEACHING OF FRENCH AND GERMAN 

the teacher to more extended study and greater mental activ- 
ity. I should say, therefore, to those instructors who have a 
practical command of the language they teach, " Use it as 
much as possible in school, but do not waste time on it. If 
you have something to tell the class, say it in the foreign 
tongue whenever you think you will be understood without 
long explanation or tiresome repetitions. Encourage the 
scholars to express themselves in the same language as soon 
and as often as they can. Always, and particularly at the 
outset, insist on the best pronunciation attainable. Begin, as 
a rule, with simple and not too numerous French or German 
sentences containing no new words, and decrease, month by 
month, the proportion of English spoken. You will find that 
during the last year the greater part of your instruction can 
be imparted in the language you are studying." Teachers 
who cannot speak German or French I should earnestly advise 
to learn to do so as quickly as possible, but not to experiment 
on the class until they have acquired a fair degree of fluency 
and correctness. 

We now come to our second subject, writing. It might 
naturally occur to us that if we devoted most of our energies 
to composition, we could, perhaps, give our scholars a kind of 
training admirably adapted to the development of their reas- 
oning faculties, and, at the same time, fix in their minds the 
most important facts of the language. Of course, however, 
we do not wish to make writing our specialty unless we can 
teach pupils to write well ; otherwise we shall have too little 
to show for our three-j^ears' labor. ISTow, before students can 
learn to write properly, they must have collected the materials : 
they should have read a large amount of French or German, 
and they must have gained a clear and complete knowledge of 
the necessary points of grammar. The former of these re- 
quirements is often neglected by teachers, but it is, in my 
opinion, the more important of the two. All our talking and 
writing of foreign tongues, so far as it is correct, is almost 



IN OUR PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS. 141 

wholly a matter of imitation : we are never sure that any 
expression we may wish to use is right, unless we have seen 
or heard it before ; and generally we must meet with a word 
or phrase many times, and examine it from several points of 
view, before we feel that we are on speaking terms with it. 
I think it would be no exaggeration to say that if we spent 
all our three years on translation and grammar, our best 
pupils would, at the end of that time, be just in proper condi- 
tion to begin serious work in composition. Writing must, 
therefore, like speaking, be considered, in our high school 
course, as a side issue. It is, nevertheless, an indispensable 
auxiliary to grammar study, and, if intelligently conducted, a 
wonderful aid to reading and translation. 

At first sight it would seem that grammar, our third topic, 
might well be made the principal theme of our modern lan- 
guage curriculum. If carefully pursued throughout the course, 
with enough reading and writing to illustrate its principles, it 
would furnish a good instrument for training the intelligence, 
and provide a subject that ought to be thoroughly learned, by 
diligent and fairly able scholars, in three years. " By dili- 
gent and fairly able scholars " — alas ! this qualifying phrase 
opens our eyes to a weakness in the argument. For it is a 
fact, shown not by ratiocination, bvit by experience, that our 
pupils, when obliged to study grammar, are neither "diligent" 
nor "fairly able": they are, generally speaking, stupid and 
indolent beyond all endurance. Why ? Simply because they 
dislike it. However pleasing grammar may appear to the 
philologist, who sees it in perspective, the schoolboy, for 
whom it is merely a collection of paradigms, formulas, and 
exceptions, finds it intolerably dry ; and the schoolboy cannot 
do his best work unless he is interested. Here and there an 
instructor may exist sufficiently enthusiastic and discriminat- 
ing to make the subject attractive ; but I fear that most of 
our teachers are scarcely more fond of the science, for its own 
sake, than are the pupils themselves. Yet we must have 



142 THE TEACHING OF FRENCH AND GERMAN 

some grammar ; else we can expect no accurate knowledge of 
the language. There seems to be but one way out of the 
dilemma : to teach only the essentials ; to administer this 
necessary amount in small and well-graded doses, alternating 
with lessons of a different character; and to emphasize its 
utility and relieve its dulness by means of close association 
with interesting composition work and agreeable reading 
matter. 

Translation and reading, as I use the terms, are not quite the 
same thing. The chief objects of the former are mental disci- 
pline and training in English; the main purpose of the latter 
is general culture, to be attained through the intelligent peru- 
sal of the greatest possible number of good foreign books. 
Yet the two cannot be entirely separated : reading must begin 
by translation ; and it is equally true that the thoughtful 
translation of literary masterpieces cannot fail to refine the 
taste. In either case we must be sure to select works that are 
excellent in themselves, and can be readily appreciated by the 
scholars ; we should study with the same care the differences 
of idiom between the two languages ; and, whatever may be 
our aim, we ought never to be satisfied with inaccurate or 
awkward English versions. In these respects the two methods 
are identical. It is, in fact, rather two ideals that we have to 
distinguish. We may. on the one hand, direct all our labors 
toward the development of the reason ; in this case we shall 
have a course consisting of carefully corrected translation, a 
maximum of grammar and composition, and comparatively 
little speaking. If, on the other hand, the end we have in 
view is the broadening of the mind and the cultivation of the 
taste, we shall have, perhaps, more translation and conversa- 
tion and somewhat less writing and grammar; and we shall 
strive to train our pupils in such a manner that they can, be- 
fore the end of the three years, absorb thought directly through 
the foreign medium, without the interposition of English, 
Both of these objects — mental discipline and general culture 



IN OUR PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS. 143 

— are so desirable that no complete course can wholly neglect 
either of them ; and if lack of time compels us partially to 
sacrifice one to the other, we may not find the choice easy. 
The following considerations seem to me to be of weight. In 
our public schools most of the work appears to be calculated 
to fit young persons rather to meet the rude exigencies of life 
than to enjoy its good things : this is doubtless right ; but the 
strictly practical side of education is not the only one that 
deserves attention. When foreigners criticise us Americans, 
they say we are intelligent, quick, inventive, but lacking in 
refinement and artistic taste ; and I think there is much truth 
in their judgment. Now, refinement and taste are necessary 
factors of civilization : we cannot afford to pass by any oppor- 
tunity to cultivate them ; and how can they be more readily 
developed than by the study of literature ? We already have 
a somewhat meagre course of reading in English ; but this, 
even if it were far more extended, could never be half so effect- 
ive in overthrowing prejudices, suggesting ideas, opening new 
vistas, and forming correct standards, as is the intercourse 
with great minds of other countries. I am, therefore, inclined 
to say that a French or German course does not fulfil its true 
mission until it affords pupils at least an introduction to the 
best literature of the language they are learhing. 



THE AIM AND SCOPE OF THE STUDY OF MOD- 
ERN LANGUAGES, AND METHODS OF TEACHING 
THEM. 

BY PROFESSOR O. B. SUPER, DICKINSON" COLLEGE. 

In discussing this subject, I may say, in the first place, 
that I believe the object of all college studies to be the same, 
namely, culture / and I do not think there is any great differ- 
ence in the educational value of the different studies usually 
pursued in college. Some studies may be best for some 
minds, others for others. Most persons who have thought 
much on the subject will still agree that there is such a 
thing as a " liberal education," however widely they may 
differ as to what constitutes such an education. I do not 
think, myself, that a college should aim to be practical in its 
work, as the word practical is ordinarily understood. Busi- 
ness colleges, schools of technology, and universities, should 
be practical ; but the proper work of the college, in my opin- 
ion, is to impart general training, and thus more fully equip 
a man for entering a professional school, or for doing his part 
towards elevating the general intelligence of the community. 

President Chadbourne once said : " Study, merely for dis- 
cipline, is waste," and with this sentiment I fully agree. Mr. 
Lowell says : " It matters less what a man learns than how 
he learns it." Anything that is thoroughly learned disci- 
plines the mind, no matter whether it be ancient or modern 
languages, mathematics, or physical science. 

One occasionally hears, even now, the theory advanced that 
if a pupil dislikes any particular study, that is precisely the 



AND METHODS OF TEACHING THEM. 145 

study he needs, aud that because Latin and Greek are harder- 
than French and German, their disciplinary vahie is by so 
much the greater. To this it maybe said, in the first place, 
that French and German are not easier than Latin and Greek, 
except in the earlier stages of the study. A pupil will, doubt- 
less, read an average French book more rapidly after study- 
ing the language six weeks, than he would read a Latin book 
after six months ; but then, we have no easy Latin. Caesar, 
with which most pupils begin, is beyond the powers of the 
average boy or girl, both in style and matter, while " La Belle 
Nivernaise," or " Das Kalte Herz," are as easily understood 
as " Uncle Tom's Cabin," or " Little Lord Fauntleroy." But 
the fact that scarcely any one who begins the study of a mod- 
ern language in school or college ever learns to speak it, or 
even write it, fluently and correctly, is sufficient evidence 
that those languages are not easy. 

Again, what a student does with most pleasure, is likely to 
be most profitable to him. Hence the propriety of elective 
studies. Shakspere knew this three hundred years ago, for 
he says : — 

" No profit grows where is no pleasure taken. 
In brief, sir, study wliat you most affect." 

Therefore, if I were asked how much French and German 
should be taught in college, I should say, " All that the pupil 
wishes to study, or all that he has time for, provided he carries 
on at the same time at least two other studies of a differ- 
ent character, such as philosophy, mathematics, or natural 
science." 

The increasing value of the modern languages has been 
recognized in nearly all our schools and colleges by the in- 
creased facilities provided for the study of these lauguages, 
as compared with those of forty or fifty years ago. Only a 
generation or two ago, even our best colleges could not afford 
a professor of French or German. If the authorities thought 



146 AIM AND SCOPE OF STUDY OF MODEKN LANGUAGES, 

these languages worthy of any attention at all, their efforts 
to provide instruction in them were usually limited to hiring 
some -''native" to come in and give lessons in his vernacular, 
just as fashionable boarding-schools at present hire a dancing- 
master or a teacher of the banjo. Mr. Lowell says that when 
he was in college nobody studied German, although there 
were some " boys who consented to spend an hour with the 
professor two or three times a week for the express purpose 
of evading study." Now all this has changed, and Harvard 
has at present more men engaged in teaching modern lan- 
guages than there were in the whole college faculty thirty 
years ago ; and the current will continue to set in this direc- 
tion, for all that is valuable in the literature of the Greeks 
and Romans has been made more accessible in the living 
languages of the present day. 

So far as the methods of teaching modern languages, or, in 
fact, any language, in college are concerned, I may say that 
the object is, or should be, to get the pupils into contact with 
the literature as soon as possible, and that method is best 
which tends most directly to this result. Of course I am 
now speaking only of collegiate instruction and of pupils 
who may be assumed to have fairly well-trained minds, 
What I shall say on this point applies mainly to the element- 
ary stages of teaching, for that is the kind of work, in fact, 
the only kind of work, that most of us have to do. While 
many colleges require the rudiments of French or German 
for admission, no college, so far as I know, requires both of 
these languages ; so that, where there are not at least two 
teachers for each of these languages, teachers of French and 
German will be required to teach beginners, and of the four 
hundred colleges in this country, only a few have more than 
one teacher for each of the modern languages, and most mod- 
ern language teachers give instruction in both French and 
German, while some have even charge of other subjects in 
addition to these two. 



AND METHODS OF TEACHING THEM. l47 

Assuming, then, that the prime object of modern language 
study is the acquisition of the ability to read these languages, 
it may be said that, for this purpose, not much grammar is 
necessary. When possible, it might be desirable to separate 
those pupils who intend to make a specialty of modern lan- 
guages from those who merely wish to take them as a desira- 
ble factor in making up the requisite number of electives in a 
college course. The former would do well to study the gram- 
mar thoroughly at the very start, whereas this would be a loss 
of time for the latter. 

Too much attention, likewise, is often given to unimpor- 
tant details. Time spent in learning lists of irregular verbs 
and rules for the gender of nouns is wasted. It ma}^ be use- 
ful to call attention to the fact that diminutives ending in 
chen and lein are neuter, and that derivatives in heit, keit, 
schaft, and ung are feminine, but beyond this, rules are not of 
much avail, for the gender of nouns cannot be learned by 
rule. This knowledge can only be acquired by long practice, 
and the subject is so full of intricacies, one might even say of 
absurdities, that, like the spelling of English, few persons ever 
completely master it. A satisfactory grammar that will serve 
as an introduction to the study of German remains to be 
written. 

It may sound strange to hear it said that too much time 
may easily be spent in trying to teach proounciation, but I 
do say this in spite of the fact that spoken language is the 
only real language. Those pupils who will ever learn to pro- 
nounce with a reasonable degree of correctness will learn to 
do it almost in the first lesson. This is particularly true of 
German. In French, more time must be devoted to phonetics, 
for the reason that its pronunciation differs more widely from 
the English than does the German, and also because there are 
in French so many anomalies and irregularities, that, so lon-g 
as it is studied, it will be necessary for the teacher to call 
attention to these irregularities and exceptions. After an 



148 AIM AND SCOPE OF STUDY OF MODERN LANGUAGES, 

experience of more than a dozen years, I am firmly convinced 
that there are in every college class some pupils who will 
never learn to pronounce French even respectably, and a few 
who will never even learn to pronounce German. There seem 
to be some persons whose ears are so defective that they are 
unable to distinguish slight differences of sound, or their vocal 
organs are so inflexible that they cannot imitate what they 
hear ; consequently they will never learn to pronounce well. 
I am also constrained to add that pure inertia, to call it 
by no harsher name, stands in the way of the success of a 
certain contingent. 

I recall an instance of a lady whose ability in most depart- 
ments was above the average, but who could never be taught 
to pronounce the French article les otherwise than to rhyme 
with j9ease, and of a gentleman who always pronounced hahen 
to rhyme with gehen, and his pronunciation of most other words 
was equally faulty. 

I have often recalled in this connection Schiller's " Wort : " 
" Mit der Dummheit kampfen Gotter selbst vergebens." I now 
give my pupils a fair chance to acquire a fairly good pronun- 
ciation ; but if I find that they cannot or will not pronounce 
as I do, and I think the failure is often due to indifference, I 
give them over to " hardness of heart and reprobacy of mind," 
and I am not sure but that the rest of the text has some ap- 
propriateness here also. 

Neither do I believe that much time should be spent on 
written translations into the foreign tongue, especially in the 
earlier stages of the work. This remark applies to nearly all 
languages except French. In German, composition can best 
be taught orally, and this method has the additional advantage 
of training the ear and the tongue at the same time. In 
French, oral translation is beset with some difficulties, owing 
to irregularities in spelling and pronunciation. The pupil 
may have the right form of a word in his mind, but his pro- 
nunciation may fail to make it perceptible to the teacher. 



AND METHODS OF TEACHING THEM. 149 

On the other hand, a sentence which appeared correct to the 
ear might prove to be very bad when written down. Besides, 
the proper use of accents can only be learned by a great deal 
of writing. It is, however, of no great importance to the aver- 
age student whether he knows all about accents or not, since 
few ever desire to write French except when there is a dic- 
tionary at hand for consultation. The best thing to do with 
beginners in a language, after the simplest elements of gram- 
mar have been studied, I do not say mastered, is to put them 
to reading, and by reading I mean translation, although I know 
that some teachers disparage and even ridicule translation in 
language study. You doubtless remember the " winged word " 
of President Eliot, that there is only one thing essential to a 
liberal education, and that is the ability to use the mother 
tongue properly. Now, I believe that one of the most fruitful 
means of improvement in English is the practice of translat- 
ing into it from another language. 

I beg leave here again to quote Mr. Lowell, for what he 
says will, of course, have more weight than it would have if I 
said it myself : " In reading such books as chiefly deserve to 
be read in any foreign language, it is wise to translate con- 
sciously and in tvords as we read. There is no better aid in 
mastering our vernacular. It compels us to such a choosing 
and testing, to so nice a discrimination of sound, propriety, 
position, and shade of meaning, that we now first learn the 
secret of the words we have been using or misusing all our 
lives, and are gradually made aware that to set forth the 
plainest matter as it should be set forth, is not only a very 
difficult thing, calling for thought and practice, but an affair 
of conscience as well. Translation teaches us as nothing else 
can, not only that there is a best way, but that it is the only 
way. Those who have tried it know too well how easy it is 
to grasp the verbal meaning of a sentence or a verse. That is 
the bird in the hand. The real meaning, the soul of it, which 
makes it literature and not jargon, that is the bird in the 



150 AIM AND SCOPE OF STUDY OF MODERN LANGUAGES, 

bush which tantalizes and stimulates with the vanishing 
glimpses we catch of it as it flits from one to another lurking- 
place." 

In order that this exercise may have its fullest benefit, the 
reading should be easy, in order that a greater amount may be 
read, and the pupil thus have the greatest amount of practice ; 
and there is then also this additional advantage, that a pupil is 
sure to take more kindly to his task if he can cover two pages 
in half an hour, than he will if he is required to spend the 
same time on half a page, and then perhaps not always be sure 
that he has caught the sense of the text. 

It likewise seems to me that teachers are often too anxious 
to be reading the "classics" in French and German, and 
" Wilhelni Tell " and " Hermann und Dorothea" are frequently 
called on to perform duties that they are not at all fitted for. 
Not long ago I examined a candidate for advanced standing 
in German, and he told me that after studying some grammar 
the class read a few stories in the back of the book, after 
which they were put into " Maria Stuart," which they read 
entire. Now, with all deference to the opinions of teachers 
who do such things, I must say that I consider this proceed- 
ing to be radically wrong, and this for two reasons : (1) Both 
thought and style are too difficult to make such reading inter- 
esting to the average beginner, and (2) the pupil should first 
come in contact with the words and ideas of every-day life ; 
such words as he can continually make use of if he has any 
opportunity or desire to do so ; and tragedies are not the best 
place to look for these words. It is for this latter reason that 
I consider Hans Andersen better for beginners than Grimm, 
although the latter seems to be more generally used. Grimm's 
"Marchen," however, contain many words and phrases that 
are archaic or provincial, and the pupil should not be com- 
pelled to learn such in the earlier stages of study. One of 
the first words that a beginner in German will naturally learn 
is " Pferd,^^ but it would be better for him not to learn at the 



AND METHODS OF TEACHING THEM. 151 

same time that by some Germans a horse is called " GauV 
In fact, to most pupils the latter word is useless lumber. 

The first sentence in one of our school editions of Grimm 
reads : " Einem reichen Manne, deni wurde seine Frau 
krank," a sentence whose construction would certainly look 
strange to a beginner. And that is not its greatest defect, 
for this is neither the best nor the most .-common way of 
expressing such an idea in German. If, after a pupil had 
read this sentence, the teacher should ask him, " Wer wurde 
krank ? " he could scarcely find the proper form for an an- 
swer in the book ; whereas, if the text read, " Eines reichen 
Mannes Frau wurde Krank," we should have a simpler sen- 
tence, and, at the same time, one which the pupil might be 
encouraged to imitate. 

Translations should usually not be literal. Here, as well as 
in spiritual matters, it is generally true that the letter killeth, 
but the spirit giveth life. A literal translation may some- 
times be called for in order to bring out the exact meaning of 
a word or phrase; but, generally speaking, it is the sense of 
the passage taken as a whole and not of the individual words 
that we should try to get at, and this sense should be ex- 
pressed in the best possible English. On this account I must 
be permitted to say that no one who is not perfectly familiar 
with the English language is competent to teach French and 
German in our schools. In the advanced stages of study the 
case is, of course, different. If a pupil, then, correctly ex- 
presses the idea of the original, not much question or comment 
should be indulged in on the part of the teacher. Whether 
the pupil knows the precise reason for every subjunctive that 
he meets, is a matter of so little consequence that time need 
not be spent in catechising him on the subject. 

Many of our elementary text-books suffer from excessive 
annotation. When the sense of any word or collection of 
words is such that the pupil is not likely to get a correct idea 
of it without a great deal of thumbing of grammar or lexicon, 



152 AIM AND SCOPE OF STUDY OF MODERN LANGUAGES. 

then he should be helped, but long historical or philological 
disquisitions are usually out of place in books intended for 
ordinary class use. Pupils generally do not read such notes, 
or if they do read them as carefully as they must be read in 
order to be of any benefit, they waste time which would better 
be spent on the text itself. I recently saw a note of twelve 
lines of small type on the German word " Boman," showing its 
origin and how it differed from " Novelle,''^ and on the same 
page a note of fifteen lines on the word ^^ voll,''^ showing how 
it was used in Middle High German, how Luther used it, etc., 
all of which was unnecessary in this place, for the pupil could 
not possibly have mistaken tha meaning of the sentence, even 
if there had been no note. 

Some teachers, indeed, object to all notes, because they are 
thereby deprived of an opportunity of displaying their own 
knowledge before their pupils, but there are few texts where 
notes can be entirely dispensed with. There should always 
be notes enough to enable the average pupil to prepare his 
lesson intelligently before coming into the class-room, but 
anything more than this is superfluous and is a positive detri- 
ment to the value of a book for ordinary purposes. 



THE NATURAL METHOD.^ 

BY PROFESSOR C. F. KROEH, STEVENS INSTITUTE OF 
TECHNOLOGY. 

Although there have probably been teachers ever since 
the time of Pestalozzi, and perhaps before, who availed them- 
selves of object-lessons to some extent in teaching languages, 
the merit of originating the so-called natural method is due 
to Gottlieb Heness in the same sense that the discovery of 
America is due to Columbus rather than to the Norsemen. 

In 1865, while Heness was explaining to a friend the ad- 
vantages of object-teaching, as used in Southern Germany, 
to help children in overcoming their dialects, the thought oc- 
curred to him that this means might be made of service in 
teaching German, or any other language. About six months 
afterward he promised to teach the sons of several professors 
in Yale University to speak German fluently in one school 
year of forty weeks, five days per week and four hours per 
day. In this undertaking he was so successful, that he 
opened a school, taught his method to Di*. L. Sauveur, and 
engaged him to assist in French. The method has since 
become widely known, especially through Dr. Sauveur's pub- 
lications and summer schools. 

The method consists in speaking only the foreign language 
in the class-room, as though English were not in existence. 
The teacher begins with short sentences about some object 
in sight, in such a way that the pupils cannot fail to under- 
stand him. He holds out a book, for example, and says, 

1 Reprinted, with the permission of the author, from his address before the 
Modern Language Association of America, 1886, on Methods of Teacliiug Modern 
Languages. 



154 THE NATURAL METHOD. 

" Here is a book ; " a pencil, and says, " Here is a pencil." 
Then, perhaps, he puts the pencil in the book and says : " The 
pencil is in the book." Thus he continues by going through 
ordinary motions of every-day life, suiting the action to the 
word. By judicious questioning the pupils are led to repro- 
duce the phraseology they have heard. It is like living in a 
foreign country under favorable conditions. 

Taking care to introduce but one new word or phrase at a 
time, the teacher continually combines in new ways the words 
already acquired by the pupils, and soon reaches a point at 
which it is rarely necessary for him to have recourse to pan- 
tomime or even to visible objects. 

His next step is to lead up to some easy reading by prepar- 
ing his pupils beforehand for the new things and the difficul- 
ties to be encountered. His object in doing so is to enable 
them to read the piece as a native does, without the necessity 
of translating. When they have read the piece, he drills 
them conversationally on the phraseology until he has reason 
to believe that they have transferred it to their working 
vo6abulary. Perhaps he finishes by making them learn the 
piece by heart. 

Grammar is taught in instalments as soon as it can be 
understood when explained in the new language ; in my own 
practice, about the tenth or fifteenth lesson. Translation is 
postponed as long as possible. 

When the vocabulary of the learner is sufficiently exten- 
sive, he is required to relate anecdotes, to condense stories he 
has read, to convert poetry into prose, etc. At this stage it 
is claimed he will enjoy all the beauties of literature exactly 
as a native does. There is now no further objection to his 
translating from one language into the other for the purpose 
of improving his style in both, and of acquiring that nicety 
of discrimination which we admire in scholarly writers. 

Let us now examine the objections which have been made 
to this system.. 



THE NATURAL METHOD. 155 

It cannot be denied, we are told, that the most natural pro- 
cess for learning a language is that through which little 
children pass. They listen to their mothers and companions, 
watch their facial expressions, their gestures and actions, and 
then imitate both the action and the accompanying words. 
But in this way about ten or twelve years are consumed in 
acquiring a commonplace, colloquial vocabulary. To this the 
child adds constantly, with its increasing experience derived 
from intercourse, reading, and study. The acquisition of 
knowledge goes hand in hand with the acquisition of terms 
to express it, and the process never stops. 

Now, when a young man enters college at the average age 
of eighteen, it is manifestly too late to repeat this lengthy and 
wasteful process with any other language. Besides, the con- 
ditions will never again be the same as those under which he 
learnt his mother tongue. His own mental organism has 
changed. He has lost much of the spontaneous receptivity 
and plasticity of mind peculiar to childhood, and has devel- 
oped in exchange the faculties of comparison, reasoning, and 
generalization. 

He is now, moreover, already in possession of the means for 
expressing his thoughts. The words of his vernacular have 
become thoroughly connected with the ideas they represent, 
and have linked themselves to form a vast number of insepa- 
rable chains of phraseology. A new language must displace 
all this. His mind now runs in deeply worn grooves. Conse- 
quently the new language has not the same chance of success 
as the first. It has a habit to overcome. The older the stu- 
dent, the ifiore firmly established the habit and the more 
extensive the vocabulary to be displaced. An adult will not 
be content with the commonplaces of children. Hence he 
must work all -the harder to attain fluency. 

Reasoning similar to that which has just been given has led 
some writers, who are imperfectly acquainted with the capa- 
bilities of the natural method, to decide that it might be 



156 THE NATURAL METHOD. 

suitable for children, but not for adults. As in so many 
controversies, the difficulty here is in a name. The natural 
method is not the process by which children learn from their 
mothers. It is, or ought to be, a great deal better than that, 
though based upon it. It is natural in its basis, but highly 
artificial in its development; and hence the name by which it 
has become knoAvn is, to a certain extent, a misnomer. But 
we cannot change that now. We can only point out that the 
arguments just formulated do not apply to the natural method 
as it is, but only as it is supposed to be. 

It has been objected that the teacher is required to do a 
disproportionate share of the work ; that he must labor exces- 
sively to supply the place of dictionary, grammar, and foreign 
surroundings to his pupils ; and that his memory must be 
under a continual strain to retain the exact vocabulary of all 
his different classes at every stage of their progress. A skil- 
ful teacher will, however, find means of lightening his labor 
and overcoming these difficulties. 

Another objection that has been made is that the conversa- 
tion necessarily turns upon trivial subjects, but my own experi- 
ence has convinced me that this is true only at the outset ; 
and since many, even of my adult pupils, find great difficulty 
in these very commonplaces, I must conclude that they are a 
necessary evil. Fortunately it is only a brief one. 

It must not be supposed that the teacher is required by the 
natural method to lower himself in any way in order to amuse 
his listeners by converting his illustrations into a farce. He 
must possess a thorough command of his language ; he must 
combine and recombine the vocabulary of his claes skilfully 
and ingeniously, so as always to be understood ; and he must 
have at his beck and call a wealth of illustrations, such as 
proverbs, winged words, anecdotes and poetry, that will not 
permit the attention of his hearers to flag for an instant. He 
wields over them the power of an orator, and he may use it 
for their highest mental and moral good. 



THE NATURAL METHOD. 157 

Again, it has been objected that this method fails to bring 
into play the higher faculties of the mind, and that it is folly 
to reject any philosophical aids to the study of languages, 
such as grammar and bilingual dictionaries. 

The first portion of this objection will never be made by 
any one who has successfully used the method, even to a very 
limited extent. Such a teacher knows that his pupils are 
vigorously comparing and reasoning all the time, and he leads 
them to make their own generalizations as soon as they can 
do it in the language taught. 

I cannot conceive of any philosophical aid to the study of 
languages that the " Sprechlehrer " cannot avail himself of. 
He certainly can and does teach grammar as thoroughly as it 
can be done by the old way. 

It would be inconsistent to permit beginners to use a bilin- 
gual dictionary, for several reasons. It promotes mental iner- 
tia, because it is easier to look up a word than to reason out 
its meaning from the context ; it is misleading, because it 
makes the learner believe that words exactly coincide in two 
languages ; whereas they may only touch each other at one 
or two points, and then each may have its own distinct figura- 
tive ramifications, which are all natural enough, provided we 
do not mix them ; and lastly, the very existence of English 
must be ignored during these lessons, for reasons which will 
presently appear. 

Yet, notwithstanding all these reasons, it would sometimes 
seem as though we had rejected a valuable aid by dispensing 
with a bilingual dictionary, especially when we consider that 
beginners have no other means of pursuing their studies out 
of the class-room. They cannot, of course, use a unilingual 
one until they have made considerable progress. But perhaps' 
they had better not pursue their studies out of the class-room 
at that stage. There is room for a difference of opinion on 
this point. 

The advantage of the natural method over tliat which is 



158 THE NATURAL METHOD. 

based upon reading is obvious. It is hardly possible to hear 
a recitation of more than six moderate octavo pages in one 
hour, if nothing else is done than "hear the lesson." If there 
are explanations and comments, the lessons must be shorter. 
Now, it is not difficult to calculate that the conversation heard 
by the students in one lively lesson by this method would fill 
at least forty pages, as a fluent speaker uses about two hun- 
dred and fifty words per minute, and a medium-sized octavo 
page contains about three hundred words. 

The basis of all language, whether literary or scientific, is 
the phraseology of every-day life, and this can be learned only 
by imitation. In actual conversation there is no time to 
reason about the arrangement, agreement, and government of 
words, or to translate them from one language into another. 
We must think directly in the language we are speaking. 
Now, I am not acquainted with any other system than the 
natural method that has provided the means of doing so. Its 
great merit, in my opinion, consists in the fact that it leads 
the learner to associate the neiv vocabulary directly tvith objects 
and actions instead of with their English names. 

The natural tendency of the learner is to translate the for- 
eign phrases he hears and sees ; but by this method he is soon 
convinced that he is wasting his time and only practising 
English by so doing ; because he can raise his hand, for ex- 
ample, and say, " I raise my hand " in any language, without 
the necessity of first thinking it in English.^ By means of 
these preliminary object-lessons the habit of direct associa- 
tion is soon formed, and this I consider their chief value. 

1 Since writing the above, the writer became aware of the fact that he had credited 
the natural method with a feature that was original with him. The remark, that 
" he can raise his hand, for example, and say, ' I raise my hand' in any language, 
without the necessity of first thinking it in English," contains a new departure not 
contemplated by the natural method, in which the teacher and not the pupil, as a 
rule, performs the action. The performance of the action by the learner when he says 
the corresponding words, and the systematic, direct association of the two, to the ex- 
clusion of English, form the basis of the writer's " Living Method for Learning how 
to Think in Foreign Languages." 



THE NATURAL METHOD. 159 

Moreover, the student, on seeing before his eyes actions and 
objects, and hearing them described, must receive more vivid 
impressions, and is therefore more likely to remember than 
where mere words are associated together, as in translation. 

After a foreign language has been studied for a while as a 
living tongue, that is to say, after a limited number of words 
and phrases, learned as described, have become grouped and 
linked together in a great variety of ways, and thoroughly 
incorporated with our brain fibre, reading will increase our 
command of the new language, just as it does in English, and 
for the same physiological reason. Nothing is then so abso- 
lutely novel and strange as not to find something kindred in 
the brain to which it can attach itself according to the laws 
which govern the action of the memory. 

The proper time for systematically comparing two lan- 
guages is when the student possesses a moderately good 
knowledge of both. I do not mean that all comparison should 
be postponed until then ; only that such comparison should 
not be made the basis of instruction. Tlie student will un- 
avoidably institute some for himself ; but he will never know 
a language as a native does unless he has learned to utilize its 
power of explaining itself. 

From these considerations I conclude that the natural 
method furnishes the most philosophical introduction to the 
study of languages which has ever been proposed for the class- 
room. For study without a teacher, where reading is the sole 
object, the interlinear system is recommended for languages 
differing widely in construction from our own, and the Marcel 
system for those which do not. 

The natural method is, of course, interminable. Probably 
no teacher can pursue it to the point at which his pupils are 
able to express themselves in the new tongue as perfectly on 
all subjects within their range as they can in the vernacular. 
In my own course I can go no farther than to lay the founda- 
tion which has been so well formulated by Prendergast. Then 



160 THE NATURAL METHOD. 

we must read as much as possible and push forward to the 
ultimate object of our course, — the easy comprehension of 
scientific and technological literature. 

The greatest difficulty I have to encounter is the imperfect 
training, or total absence of training, of the ear in our schools. 
The education of our young people is conducted almost ex- 
clusively through the eye by means of books. There is so. 
little oral instruction that the pupils not only do not hear 
accurately, but have to learn the art of paying attention. To 
meet this difficulty, I have prepared drill-books on the pronun- 
ciation of German and French, in which the difficulties are 
overcome one by one by systematic practice. By placing 
these books in the hands of students, I find when I begin con- 
versation that my labor is very much lightened. 

SELF-INSTRUCTION AND THE CLASS-ROOM. 

Permit me in conclusion to describe how I should avail 
myself of various aids in acquiring a language myself. I 
should undoubtedly begin by taking a course of lessons by 
the natural method until I was sure that my pronunciation 
was accurate and until I had mastered all the constructions. 
Then I should read a short grammar, written in the language 
I was studying, and thoroughly drill myself on declensions and 
conjugations, especially the irregular ones, rejecting, of course, 
all that are likely to occur but rarely. 

The next step would be to read several thousand pages 
without consulting a dictionary, or at least without consulting 
it very often. This first reading must not be too difficult. 
It should consist of popular tales and even nursery rhymes 
and songs, — everything in fact that a native learns first in 
his own language. 

All the literature of a nation is full of allusions to these 
outgrowths of popular life, and many of them have enough 
intrinsic value to repay the trouble of storing them in the 
memory. 



THE NATURAL METHOD. 161 

Then I sliould ascertain what are the best contemporary 
novels and plays, and read all the works of one good author 
first, because a man necessarily has a limited vocabulary and 
is obliged to repeat himself. I should select a writer of the 
realistic school whose realism confined itself to minute de- 
scriptions of the ordinary events of life ; for my object would 
now be to surround myself artificially with the advantages 
which can be derived otherwise only from a residence among 
the people whose language I desire to master. 

In all this reading, my constant endeavor is to avoid trans- 
lating. 

Whenever I reach a good colloquial sentence likely to be of 
service to me, because it contains either phraseology that 
must be used in daily intercourse, or connectives, construc- 
tions, or idioms peculiar to the language, I impress it upon my 
memory, by repeating it once or twice without looking at the 
book and as though I were actually speaking to some one. 
Then I mark the sentence ; and on finishing the volume, I 
renew my acquaintance with the marked passages by copying 
them in a note-book. 

It is astonishing how naturally the material thus stored in 
the mind becomes available for the purposes of actual conver- 
sation. Not the identical sentences, but their peculiar turns, 
come up as occasion arises to apply them. 

If no such occasion arises, we must create one artificially, 
or else all our labor is in vain. We must think in the new 
language daily ; that is, we must hold mental conversations 
with ourselves about familiar objects, scenes, and persons, and 
about our occupations : we must recall anecdotes and stories 
we have read ; in short, we must entertain ourselves as best 
we can in the foreign language during our walks, rides, and 
moments of leisure and solitude. 

While we can do all this for ourselves, it is not so easy to 
carry out the principle of it in the class-room. We may con- 
vince students of the desirability of such a method of self- 



162 THE NATURAL METHOD. 

instruction, and hold out to them the certainty of success ; but 
few, if any, will put it in practice unless we make it impossi- 
ble for them to avoid following our instrlictions. It is the 
nature of the youthful mind to study all lessons in precisely 
the same manner — a lesson in languages just like a lesson in 
geometry. To them studying means reading a task over and 
understanding it. The idea oi practising has to be enforced. 

It will be desirable, therefore, on hearing a reading-lesson 
to direct students to mark and commit to memory certain sen- 
tences in such a way that they can repeat them the next day 
fluently and naturally after reading them over once. Any 
hesitation or false emphasis should be considered a failure. 
Then questions might be prepared to compel students to com- 
bine their newly acquired vocabulary in various ways. 

By judicious selection they will soon accumulate enough 
material to enable them to narrate in their own phraseology 
simple stories and anecdotes, and eventually to condense longer 
narratives, to paraphrase poetry, and to write compositions. 

I consider it very important to begin with the literature of 
the present day, and not to meddle with classical writers until 
the daily newspaper no longer presents any difficulties. Then 
the student may approach the classics on a footing of equality 
with a native. Those who imagine that they are enjoying a 
foreign classic while they have to dig out the meaning labori- 
ously, are only deluding themselves. What they enjoy, if 
they honestly get any pleasure in the process, is the thought 
of the writer as conveyed in their own rendering, and per- 
haps also the satisfaction of overcoming difficulty. They cer- 
tainly cannot enjoy the beauty of the original. 



THE "READER" THE CENTRE OF MODERN 
iiANGUAGE TEACHING.' 



/ 



KY W. STUART MACGOWAN, ASSISTANT MASTER, CHELTENHAM 
C0LLE(;E, ENGLAND. 

The main principle which I shall have to establish in deal- 
ing with this question is the following, which I -shall now 
postulate as an axiom, but shall shortly endeavor to prove ; 
viz., The 7'eading of connected texts is the basis upon which 
a sound practical knowledge of a modern language can best be 
acquired. 

If not, what is our alternative ? That great authority on 
things educational, Dr. Johnson, has furnished us with a 
doctrine which, from its apparent logic, has overshadoAved 
all teaching of languages from his day to our own. He says, 
" First get a thorough knowledge of the grammar, and 
then apply what you have learnt to reading and writing." 
This seems beautifully simple, but a long and patient trial has 
proved it to be a fallacy most cunningly concealed. Teachers 
are now awakening to the fact that, by giving to grammar a 
premier and isolated position, they have for years persistently 
put the cart before the hoi'se. The result of this has been 
sorrow and disgust to the teacher, weariness and pain to the 
pupil. This is hardly surprising. Grammar in the abstract 
does not appeal to the mind of the pupil ; it is uninteresting, 
unintelligible, and is not remembered for long. It makes 
the study of language dry even to pupils with strong lin- 
guistic tendencies, and leads them to attach an exaggerated 

' Read at the Modern Language Conference of the Teachers' Guild, 1890, and 
reprinted with the permission of tlie author. 



164 THE " READER " THE CENTRE OF 

importance to really very unimportant details. Grammar 
was made for man, and not man for grammar. I am not 
abusing grammar, in so far as it helps us to understand lan- 
guage ; but our stereotyped method of imparting it has 
brought it into just disrepute. Surely it is possible to write 
and speak French without knowing all about the plurals 
of compound nouns. Thus grand' meres, but grands peres ; 
avant-gardes, but timhres-poste, etc. 

Is it necessary that an elementary student of German 
should burden his memory with the differences in meaning of 
Lander and Lande, TucJier and Tuche? Is it absolutely 
essential that a Latin student should be quite certain of the 
gender of a hat, a cough, and a basiii in that language ? 

This kind of thing is very nearly useless, even in more 
advanced prose composition. 

Grammar, then, being an abstract and lifeless science, we 
must put it in a concrete form, if we are to give it any vitality. 
This is brought about by bringing it into connection with 
reading. If a boy has seen a form in his reading-book, and 
has had to translate it, it is no longer an abstract creation of 
the grammarian, a something shadowy and unreal, which has 
no part in life, but it has become an objective reality to him, 
a concrete and tangible object, which will serve him as a basis 
for an intelligent grammar lesson. 

Let us take a form like 8^aa in Greek. The pupil has to 
find a meaning, fails, and has to be told that it is contracted 
from dgd-ovoa ; he will then see the need of some rules for con- 
traction, and will eagerly welcome any assistance which gram- 
mar can give. In other words, we ought never to give a 
grammatical rule without a preceding concrete instance. This 
is really the only logical method, and yet how few Latin or 
Greek grammars do we see giving numerous examples of a 
phenomenon, and then deducing their rules from these exam- 
ples. Don't they nearly all give the rule first, and then illus- 
trate the rule by examples ? I remember vividly how, at 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING. 165 

school, I wasted valuable time by mechanically committiag 
to memory first the rules of the Latin Grammar, and after- 
wards those of the Latin Primer. 

Again, there are some things in a language which no gram- 
mar can ever explain, no rule can ever define. Rules and 
grammar are powerless to cope with what can onh^ be felt : it 
is useless to explain the vigor of a foreign idiom ; we can but 
feel it or imitate it. It is quite impossible to explain how a 
thought took a certain form of words ; in our rendering we 
can at best give an approximate translation, or a correspond- 
ing idiom. Grammar, then, has very clearly defined boundary 
lines, which it is powerless to pass. 

Therefore, grammar, to be really useful, must be brought 
into connection with the reading of carefully selected texts. 
In this form it will be of real service to the pupil. 

The case for the Reader as Centre of Instruction may be 
very adequately summed up in the words of Breal : " II faiit 
apprendve la grammaire par la langue et non la langue par la 
gramma ire. ''^ — '^ Gramynar sJiould never be taught before the 
language and apart from, it.^' (Ktihn, Preface to French 
Grammar.) 

But I fully recognize the importance of a systematic treat- 
ment of grammar in the reading-book, and do not therefore 
agree with those who would abandon grammar altogether. 
Grammar is the sj^stematized result of man's labors in the 
field of language ; to throw it away would be a Avilf ul sacrifice 
of the experience of our race, and would compel each pupil 
to begin systematizing for himself afresh. This would be a 
terrible state of affairs, and might aptly be termed the method 
of " plunge and struggle." It has very little to recommend 
it, and is open to some serious objections. 

(a) The task of forming a logical series of inductions, in 
the strict sense of the word, is beyond the power of most 
pupils. They would be simply bewildered by the maze of 
forms they would encounter, and without assistance they 



166 THE " READER " THE CENTRE OF 

could never reduce their experiences to anything like order. 
It has been said by some advocates of this method : One word 
is as difficult to a beginner as another ; but, even if we admit 
this obvious fallacy for the sake of argument, it by no means 
follows that the order in which we present words, and facts 
connected with them, is of no importance. We must help our 
pupil to introduce order in all his conceptions ; all his work 
must be systematic ; he must see as clearly as we do the goal 
towards which he is striving : boys resent being taught in the 
dark. What we want is modified induction, — i.e., induction 
on the basis of certain carefully prepared texts. 

(b) But there is another, and I think a graver, objection to 
the method of "plunge and struggle" than that just men- 
tioned. If we abolished grammar, we should abolish with 
it that mental discipline which some rate so highly, and which 
consists in mastering and applying a systematic knowledge of 
any language. This is a real education to a pupil, and in 
these days, when the tendency is to assign the dominant place 
to purely utilitarian subjects, we cannot afford to let him 
neglect it. It gives him a power of abstract thinking, and may 
be obtained just as easily from a modern as from an ancient 
language. 

We may definitely assume, therefore, that grammar is a 
necessity ; it remains to be seen in what form it can best be 
taught. 

Most of our present methods, although they all, from Ollen- 
dorff to Prendergast, have some definite underlying principle, 
are open to the objection that they are unsystematic and 
inexact, and are thus not calculated to impress the pupil with 
the idea that languages are really a most scientific study. It 
would serve no purpose to enumerate the many deficiencies in 
the more prominent among modern methods of imparting 
foreign languages ; but the main points which have struck me 
most forcibly in the numerous grammars I have read are the 
followina: : — 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING. 167 

(i.) Their utter want of organization. 

(ii.) The absolute lack of anything like a definite system 
in dealing with the varied phenomena of language. 

The most glaring defect of all, viz., the absolute want of 
uniformity in grammatical terms, has already been dealt with, 
so that I need only mention it in passing. 

The unfortunate pupils are lost in a wilderness of confused 
ideas ; every grammarian, every author of a " course," uses 
different terms to still more bewilder the hopelessly befogged 
pupil. Every one has his own particular fad, his one pet 
belief, which he produces regardless of the fact that, while 
teachers disagree, pupils must suifer. ^' Quicquid delirant 
reges, plectuntur Achivi." 

There are some people, however, who derive great hope for 
the future from the very multiplicity of our rival systems, on 
the general ground that " Competition is healthy," or " There 
is nothing like fi-ee trade in education." jSTevertheless, our 
striking lack of uniformity has been, and still is, largely re- 
sponsible for the low level of knowledge of foreign languages 
noticeable among us to-day. 

Do not let us disperse without formulating the main prin- 
ciples on which the true method of teaching foreign languages 
can be based. 

This brings us to the further question. What are the condi- 
tions which an ideal method ought to fuljil? 

They are numerous, but they may be summed up shortly. 

(1) The Reader must be systematic ; i.e., it must lend itself 
to a methodical study of grammar. This may be best 
achieved by means of carefully prepared texts into which 
the forms to be learnt are systematically introduced in a pre- 
scribed order. This must, of coui'se, be accomplished without 
doing violence to the literature ; and, by diligent search, pieces 
may be discovered which amply illustrate all the grammatical 
phenomena of a language. By this method the pupil will 
kill two birds with one stone, — (a) he is developing his sense 



168 THE "reader" the. centre of 

of language by learning phraseology and vocabulary, and (b) 
lie is learning grammar — inductively/, almost unconsciously. 
Then, too, his interest must be kept alive no less by the con- 
secutiveness of the passages than of the ideas they embody. 
There must be no isolated nonsense sentences, so dear to the 
disciples of Messrs. Otto, Ollendorff, and Ahn, about ''My 
brother's cups of tea," or " The trees of the good baker's wife." 
Fragments of this sort may possibly be understood, but they 
cannot form a compact whole in the mind of the pupil, for the 
very good reason that they have never been conceived as a 
whole in the mind of the grammarian. 

Thus, a definite and systematic series of graduated gram- 
matical phenomena is an indispensable requisite of any Reader 
which is to be the centre of instruction. 

(2) Another important feature of this Reader would consist 
in the arrangemeMt of the various grammatical phenomena to 
be acquired. These would be so arranged as to present to the 
pupil the important before the unimportant, the less difficult 
before the more difficult. 

The results of this method would be that the pupil, instead 
of leaving school with an ill-assorted medley of isolated facts, 
which are of very little use for the practical purposes of read- 
ing and writing, would have acquired without difficulty a 
complete and connected view of the main features of the 
language. This he would carry away with him in his memory, 
and it would be a permanent possession to him. 

(3) The next point of importance in the Reader would be 
the position the vocabulary ( Wortschatz) would occupy. This 
should be useful, but not too comprehensive ; simple, and yet 
not vague. It should not attempt to replace the teacher 
entirely, but should yet be sufficiently extensive to give the 
pupil a sufficient copia verborum. In this particular it would 
fittingly replace the dictionary, the clumsy use of which causes 
an immense waste of time among junior pupils. 

(4) Another important feature in this Reader would be 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING. 169 

graduated English passages for tvanslatiuii based upon the 
gravfiinar and vocabulary just acquired in the foreign text. 
Writing must always be based upon reading. The impor- 
tance of this principle was recognized by Roger Ascham, and 
its truth is nowadays reasserted by many prominent modern 
schoolmasters. In many of the French and German school- 
books of the present day, one constantly finds after the text, 
sentences, and sometimes connected passages for retranslation. 
But, though both Ascham and modern teachers are at one as 
to the importance of basing writing upon reading, yet here 
again there is no system, though Bacon's dictum, that " writ- 
ing maketh an exact man," is as universally recognized to-day 
as it was three hundred years ago. What is wanted now is a 
Reader which shall combine Ascham's principles with the 
research and ingenuity of modern times ; i.e., writing based 
upon reading combined with systematic grammar. Such writ- 
ing as this would be doubly useful, because it would compel a 
pupil to arrange and apply his knowledge. 

Lastly, it would be an essential feature of the reading-book 
that it should be in touch with our examination system, 
although it is to be hoped that examiners may shortly see fit 
to modify somewhat their present modus operandi. Still, any 
method, to be an ideal one in a practical as well as an educa- 
tional sense, must not be too far removed from the exigen- 
cies of our time. 

With such a Reader as this, the true order of learning 
would be somewhat as follows : — 

(i.) Read a carefully prepared text under the direction of a 
teacher. 

(ii.) Learn a small piece of grammar arising out of the 
text just read. 

(iii.) Apply the knowledge thus gained to writing. 

Efforts have been made of late to embody in practical form 
the principles for which I contend, and I hope that before 
long the problem will be successfully solved to which Mr. 



170 MODEJBN LANGUAGE TEACHING. 

Henry Sweet refers in an article in the Academy of July 
17th, 1886, when he speaks of the imperative "necessity 
of bridging over the formidable gulf between grammar and 
reading." 

But the importance of this subject is not merely technical, 
or solely educational ; it is vital to the best interests of a 
wider circle than that controlled by the scholastic profession. 
The public have a right to expect that their sons and daughters 
shall be practically instructed at school how to read, write, 
speak, and understand foreign languages. It is not for want 
of ability in the rising generation that our knowledge of for- 
eign languages is of such small practical use : there is no lack 
of native intelligence in the Anglo-Saxon race, — it is merely 
the want of a properly organized rational system. It is per- 
fectly useless to expect good "results," if we leave to the 
unfettered free agency of untutored minds the task of select- 
ing or evolving the method by which these results are to be 
obtained. The average mind is quite incapable of the initial 
effort which the evolution of a system demands ; hence, in the 
interests of foreign languages, it is absolutely essential that 
the majority of teachers should be agreed as to the catholic 
method of imparting instruction. 

It is thus little less than a national calamity that language 
teachers should regard the chaotic muddle of conflicting 
methods with complacency, when the country cries aloud 
for reform. We modern language teachers have a great na- 
tional duty to fulfil, and one which will brook no delay. It is 
an urgent educational necessity that the true method of 
teaching foreign languages should be laid down in no ambig- 
uous terms. In my opinion. Order, Uniformity, and Progress 
can best be attained by the adoption of the Keader as the 
centre of all foreign language teaching. 



ON THE USE OF THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN 
THE CLA&S^ROOM.^ 

BY PROFESSOR H. C. G. VON JAGEMANN, HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 

Questions connected with methods of teaching are largely 
economic questions. Pedagogical theory may devise what 
seems to be a thoroughly scientific method of teaching a 
foreign language ; the teacher, however, is less concerned 
with what, on general principles, ought to be done, than he is 
with what he can do thoroughly well, with a given number 
of pupils, of a given capacity, in a given time. The ideal 
method of teaching is rarely practicable in the class-room, 
owing to the great limitations of teaching-force and time ; 
and he who would be a successful teacher must recognize 
these limitations, must adapt his ideal method to the real 
conditions, and must refrain from trying to do the things 
which, from the nature of these conditions, cannot be done 
satisfactorily. 

The various reforms in the teaching of modern languages "that 
have been advocated time and again since Coraenius, are only 
in part applicable to the conditions ordinarily found in schools 
and colleges. It seeuis, e.g., hardly necessary to point out that 
for grown persons the " Natural Method " of learning a language, 
i.e., the method by which children learn their mother tongue, 
would be as unnatural as it would be for children to learn their 
mother tongue from Webster's Dictionary ; while, on the other 
hand, it is not at all certain that even little children might 
not learn their mother tongue more rapidly if they received 

1 A part of the material contained in tliis paper was printed in tlie Transactions 
of the Modern Language Association of America, vol. i. pp. 2:20 ff. 



172 ON THE USE OF THE 

in it judicious and systematic instruction, adapted "to their 
age, instead of being left to " pick it up," with a great waste 
of energy upon material of which they cannot yet make use. 
But even in the improved, and hence to that extent no longer 
" natural," form which this method has gradually taken in the 
hands of some very skilful teachers, its most distinctive 
features render it still unfit for use in ordinary college classes. 
These distinctive features are : (1) all instruction is in the 
first place oral ; and (2) the only medium of communication 
permitted between teacher and pupil is the language to be 
taught. 

To make instruction oral to the extent which the Natural 
Method requires is out of the question, because in college- 
classes progress depends very largely upon the amount of 
home-study which the student can give to the subject, and 
home-study is made very difficult when the instruction in 
class is largely oral. To be sure, there are beginners' books 
in the foreign idiom, but one has as yet succeeded in writ- 
ing a systematic text-book in a foreign language which a stu- 
dent can use without frequently resorting to a dictionary or 
vocabulary when the teacher is not at hand ; and that way of 
finding out the meaning of a word is excluded by the strict 
advocates of the " Natural Method." How then is the student 
to be employed in the two hours of home-study for each reci- 
tation, the minimum ordinarily expected ? As long as diction- 
aries and vocabularies are excluded, the Natural Method is 
possible only in schools where recitations are frequent, and 
where no work is expected of the pupil outside of the class- 
room, excepting, perhaps, memorizing matter with which he 
has been made thoroughly familiar in the class-room. Again, 
purely oral work itself is very difficult, if not impossible, 
with classes as large as are usually found in colleges. The 
various '' Schools of Languages " that have produced good 
results with certain special varieties of the Natural Method, 
insist upon very small classes, and do not generally burden 



FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN THE CLASS-ROOM. 173 

the teacher with more than six pupils at a time. With classes 
as small as that, oral instruction might be made more success- 
ful in colleges and schools. * 

The second rule of the Natural Method, that the language 
to be taught should be the only medium of communit3ation 
between teacher and pupil, deprives the student of one of the 
most useful instruments for learning a foreign language, viz., 
his mother tongue. Because a child, in trying to understand 
a new word or a* strange idiom, does not draw for aid upon a 
foreign language which it does not understand at all, this is 
not a good reason why a grown person in full possession of 
one language should not make use of it for the purpose of 
correctly classifying the material of any other language that 
he may wish to. acquire. It would seem distinctly unnatural 
if he did not make use of it. In fact, it would be quite im- 
possible. His ultimate aim, to be sure, should be to under- 
stand and use the foreign language without the intervention 
of his own, i.e., without translating ; but at first, and tem- 
porarily, voluntarily or involuntarily, he will associate the 
new word with the old, and not directly with the thing, until, 
by continued practice, he learns, so to speak, to skip one of 
the two mental processes, and learns to connect the new word 
directly with the thing, and vice versa. The words of our 
mother tongue are so firmly associated in our minds with the 
things which they signify, that it requires a distinct and pro- 
longed mental effort to displace them so much as to make room 
for a new word. That this is natural and in accordance with 
the laws of the human mind appears from the fact that even 
within the territory of our native language it is difficult for 
us to learn a new word without associating it at first with one 
with which we have previously been acquainted ; and even in 
learning the name of a new thing, or of one for which we 
have not known any special name, we are very much inclined 
not to be satisfied with the new term, but we involuntarily 
seek at least for a definition made up of words of our old 



174 ON THE USE OF THE 

stock. It is doubtless well to make, from the very beginning, 
systematic efforts to induce the student to connect the new- 
words with the things themselves, and not with the words of 
his native language. But, on the other hand, there is no 
economy of time or strength in persistently rejecting the 
help which the student's native language offers, when we wish 
to make clear to him the meaning of a new word or idiomy 
especially as we cannot prevent the familiar native word from 
coming up in the pupil's mind, as soon as he has caught the 
drift of an often long and laborious, though perhaps success- 
ful, definition in the foreign idiom. 

While, therefore, we do not believe that the language to be 
taught should form the only medium of communication be- 
tween teacher and pupil, we are yet convinced that instruction 
in modern languages in colleges and schools is rendered more 
effective by making in the class-room as much use of the for- 
eign idiom as the varying conditions of time, teaching-force, and 
general and special advancement of the pupils will allow. In 
order not to be misunderstood, however, we must state at once 
that we do not regard the ability to speak the foreign language 
as the chief object of its study in school or college. The 
difference between two persons, both knowing German thor- 
oughly well, but one of them speaking the language, while the 
other does not, is simply this : the former has pronounced so 
often the most common words of the language in their vari- 
ous combinations with other words, that the mental process 
of associating certain ideas with the German words, and the 
subsequent reaction upon the speech-organs, has with him 
become habitual and rapid, while with the latter person it is 
unwonted and slow. Hence, the acquisition of a speaking 
knowledge of a foreign language does not, in itself, imply any 
increase in real knowledge or reasoning-power ; and it has, 
therefore, no more claim to a place among serious college 
studies than any other of the numerous practical applications 
of scientific or artistic principles. The ground on which we 



FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN THE CLASS-ROOM. 175 

wish to justify the use of the foreign language in the class- 
room is not that it gives the student a speaking "knowledge of 
it, but that it leads to a more thorough general acquaintance 
with the language, and a more intelligent appreciation of its 
literature. 

As we have stated above, the extent to which the foreign 
idiom shoukl be used in the class-room will depend on the 
varying conditions of time, teaching-force, and general and 
special advancement of the pupil. Any use of the foreign 
idiom as a means of communication between teacher and pupil 
requires intense mental application on both sides ; for this 
reason, in elementary or second-year's classes, it can hardly be 
recommended, unless the classes are smaller than they are in 
most colleges. It is hoped that the time will come when 
teachers of German will not be burdened with larger elemen- 
tary classes than their colleagues in Greek now are ; then there 
will be no longer any objection to the use of German in the 
class-room on the ground of the size of the classes. Experience 
shows that in beginners' classes not exceeding twenty-five, the 
German language may to advantage be used from the very 
start, even in teaching the elements of grammar. The meth- 
od which we recommend is, briefly, the following : — 

Teach the student, by any method you may choose, tlie use 
of about fifty nouns, twenty-five adjectives, the numerals, a 
few particles, and a few forms of the auxiliaries. A week 
will amply suffice for this. The student will then be able to 
understand a simple grammatical principle if stated in Ger- 
man : — 

Die deutsche Sprache hat ztvei Declinationen. 

Die erste Declination hat drei Klassen. 

Die erste Klasse hat in der Mehrzahl keine Endung, etc. 

These are sentences which the German student of a week or 
two will understand as readily as though they were written 
or spoken in English. The statement and explanation, in 



176 OK THE USE OF THE 

German, of grammatical principles is much easier than is 
commonly supposed. It requires at first a little effort on the 
part of the teacher, to couch his explanations in such plain 
language as his students can understand. But this art may 
soon be acquired. A calculation shows that the elements of 
German can be taught according to any of the grammars com- 
monly used, with the use of about eighty-five grammatical 
terms, mostly, of course, of Latin extraction. If the German 
language is to be used as a means of communication between 
teacher and pupil, sixty-four of these terms, or about seventy- 
five per cent, may be used in so slightly modified a form, that 
the student will easily understand them the first time they 
are used, and this without unduly resorting to Latinisms, 
using merely the same terminology that is used in Germany 
in all schools of a higher grade. In the case of twenty-three 
words, or twenty-seven per cent, is the corresponding German 
word of German origin preferable ; in only a few cases, like 
" Ablaut " and " Umlaut," is it necessary to employ a purely 
German word. Some teachers will find it more advantageous 
to use as much as practicable a purely German terminology, 
and there is no doubt a certain gain in teaching such terms as 
" Hauptwort " and " Bindewort ; " but even in that case the 
student will have to learn only forty-eight words which he 
does not know, in slightly modified form, from English or 
Latin Grammar, and most of them, like those cited above, are 
of very transparent signification. Aside from these technical 
terms, only the most common words which every student 
should know, will be needed to make up an elementary Ger- 
man grammar in German. As the time arrives for the stu- 
dent to grapple with the more intricate laws of the language, 
he will be able to understand the more difficult phraseology 
needed to express them. And, we may add, if a teacher suc- 
ceeds in couching a new grammatical principle in such lan- 
guage as his pupils with close attention can understand, it 
will make a greater impression upon them than an ordinary 
explanation in English. 



FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN THE CLASS-ROOM. 177 

Little stress should at first be laid on translation from Eng- 
lish into German. The method long used in Larousse's gram- 
mars and lexicologies for the public schools of France is far 
preferable ; and, besides, the place of translation into German 
may be largely taken by the answers to grammatical and 
lexicological questions which the pupil must give in German. 
Nor should translation in class from German into English 
receive as much time as it ordinarily does. Interpretation in 
German should be largely substituted. The chief use of trans- 
lating in class what the student has read at home, is to assure 
the teacher that the student has understood the true meaning 
of the text. If he can assure himself of this by way of asking 
questions on the text in German, additional training for the 
pupil is secured. How do teachers teach German in German 
schools or English in English schools ? If the class read 
such matter as at their stage of advancement they should read, 
— and we are always inclined to give our students too diffi- 
cult things to read, — the greater part of the text should be 
readily understood by the student. There will be difficult 
passages, and there should be ; but in the great majority of 
cases the difficulty of a passage hinges upon the meaning or 
syntactical relation of one or two words, and, with a sufficient 
German grammatical vocabulary at his disposal, the teacher 
can generally explain such meaning or relation without leav- 
ing the territory of the German language. If this be done as 
a rule, an occasional resorting to translation, if it be deemed 
best, will do no harm. 

This is, in outline, the method we should recommend. Let 
us now turn to a consideration of the advantages it offers. 
Everybody will agree that the ideal method of studying Ger- 
man is to go to Germany, mingle with the people, read news- 
papers, go to tlie theatre, and, last, but not least, place one's 
self under an experienced teacher who has a thorough knowl- 
edge of English and understands the student's difficulties and 
can answer his questions. Under such conditions rapid prog- 



178 ON THE USE OF THE 

ress and good results are inevitable, Now, what are the es- 
sential features of these conditions, and to what extent may 
they be reproduced in the class-room ? Is there anything 
peculiar about the atmosphere of Germany that makes it easier 
to learn German there than here ? Doubtless, to understand 
a nation's literature, it is very desirable to see the country, 
observe the habits, and study the character of the people, and 
see as much as possible of their life in all its phases ; but in 
order merely to learn the language, such direct contact Vith 
country and people is of much less importance. The reason 
why we make such rapid progress in a foreign language as 
soon as we arrive in the country where it is spoken, is not so 
much that we now study the language in its own home, but 
rather that we have so many more opportunities to hear and 
speak it. The difference between the training which we get 
in the class-room by the ordinary methods and that which we 
get in the foreign country is not necessarily one of kind, but 
one of quantity. It is one of kind in so far as in the foreign 
country we often have occasion to associate a new word or 
idiom with some personal observation or experience, which 
impresses it upon our minds ; but this naturally holds good 
only of a limited part of the language-material, and, to a small 
extent, this advantage may be secured even in ordinary class- 
instruction. The most essential difference is, as we have said, 
one of quantity, and this difference in quantity is enormous. 
No method of teaching can make up for the advantages which 
a stay in the foreign cou.ntry offers ; but we contend that a 
more extensive use of the foreign language in the class-room 
can greatly reduce the disadvantages under which class-in- 
struction at home ordinarily labors. 

In the majority of institutions with which we are acquainted, 
by far the greater part of the time devoted to German is given 
to translation from German into English, and translation from 
English into German. Neither exercise allows the student to 
think in German for more than a few moments consecutively, 



FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN THE CLASS-ROOM. 179 

even if he tried, not to speak of its affording him absolutely 
no incentive to do so. Aside from the reading of the German 
text, and even that is not always done, the student hears and 
speaks nothing but English ; in other words, for about ten 
minutes out of possible hfty, he learns German, the remaining 
forty minutes he learns facts about German. On the other 
hand, if, as above suggested, the instruction be carried on 
entirely in German, the student will learn German for fifty 
minutes. In addition to the study of the grammatical subject 
under discussion, or of the text before him, he has all the 
grammatical, lexicological, and literary comments in German. 
We all know the value of a vast amount of easy reading for 
the acquisition of a language. It seems a low estimate if we 
consider the amount of German the student will hear in each 
recitation over and above the text itself, equal to ten ordinary 
pages of an easy text ; this would be equal to from one thou- 
sand to two thousand pages a year, according to the number of 
recitations. It seems evident that this must considerably in- 
crease and strengthen the student's knowledge of the language. 
As stated above, the reason of the rapid progress we make in a 
foreign language as soon as we arrive in the country where it 
is spoken, is simply that we continually hear the same forms, the 
same words, the same combinations of words. If German is 
spoken in the class-room, every sentence — whether spoken or 
read — will be a drill in the noun and adjective declensions, 
in the conjugation, in the government of prepositions, and in 
the elementary rules for arrangement. We suppose, of course, 
that the teacher is thorough, and that no faulty answer is ever 
allowed to pass. 

The difficulty about reading German at sight is not that the 
necessary vocabulary is so large, but that the student is com- 
monly brought face to face at once with too many of the rarer 
words, and in his bewilderment he has no opportunity to become 
thoroughly acquainted with the most common ones. And 
any uncertainty as to the meaning of these common words 



180 ON THE USE OP THE 

which the student ought to know, and might know, will ma- 
terially lessen his capacity for correctly guessing the meaning 
of a rarer word occurring in the same passage. An examina- 
tion of ten pages of Goethe's prose chosen at random shows 
that the articles, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, auxil- 
iaries, and the most common adverbs constitute no less than 
fifty-eight per cent of his vocabulary. If the student has 
these at his fingers' ends, together with a reasonable number 
of nouns and adjectives, and the strong and most important 
weak and irregular verbs, he will have an excellent hold on the 
vocabulary of the language ; and certainly a method like the 
one described will keep these fundamental terms sounding in 
his ears until he is as familiar with them as with their English 
equivalents. 

One of the most fatal mistakes that teachers of modern 
languages in colleges are liable to make is to hurry their 
classes too much. The time allotted to their work is short 
and their aims are high ; no wonder, they often give their stu- 
dents too difficult work. It would be much better for the 
student never to attempt to read a German classic in the origi- 
nal, than to slur over the elements of German, and then spell 
out or guess at Goethe's or Lessing's thoughts, or take frequent 
tumbles from the noble flights of Schiller's language into the 
regions of the adjective declension. German classics are not 
proper reading-material for the first year. " It is not know- 
ing German to be able to work one's Avay through a foot-note 
and just miss the point from not knowing the force of a modal 
auxiliary." The use of German in the class-room will be 
found a wholesome corrective of this evil. The teacher, 
being obliged to make himself understood by his students, 
will not present to them material for which they are as yet 
unprepared. 

Again, in this way, and only in this way, does the student 
become acquainted with the spoken language. This is a matter 
of no mean importance, and is well worth careful considera- 



FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN THE CLASS-ROOM. 181 

tion ; but only a few points can be mentioned here. The lit- 
erary language is to a certain extent a dead language ; the 
spoken language, on the other hand, exhibits life, action, lin- 
guistic tendencies. We believe in teaching in college the prin- 
ciples of linguistic development, and these principles are better 
illustrated by the spoken language than by the language of 
literature. Moreover, a knowledge of the every-day speech of 
a people is necessary for the intelligent appreciation of its 
literature. The character of literary productions, of authors, 
of schools of poetry, of entire periods of literature, is often 
defined by their relation to the every-day speech of the people. 
How, then, can we make students appreciate the character of 
the works they are reading unless we give them the standard 
of the every-day speech to measure by ? Can any one appre- 
ciate the simple grandeur of the language of the English 
Bible, or the loftiness of that of Milton, who does not know 
how English-speaking people commonly express themselves ? 
No one particular work, however perfect it may be, can ad- 
equately reflect the character of a language or a literature ; on 
the contrary, there is nothing more characteristic of a language 
than the diversity of uses to which it can be put. The every- 
day speech of the people seems to be the best starting-point 
for the study of the various languages within a language, and 
the most natural standard of comparison. 

As we have already said, it would be impossible to use 
German exclusively in very large first or second year 
classes. But even in classes of forty or fifty a slight be- 
ginning may be made.- The least that may be expected 
from the very beginning is that no sentence shall ever be 
translated until the German has been read aloud. This 
reading of the text, so far from delaying rapid progress, as 
some teachers think, results ultimately in a great gain of 
time. It is the only way students can ever be taught to com- 
prehend the construction and meaning of a sentence at the 
first glance, without translation into English. A compli- 



182 OK THE USE OF THE 

Gated construction often becomes clear as soon as the teacher 
reads the sentence aloud with some expression. A great 
amount of time is wasted in translating matter that really 
offers no serious difficulties and might be readily understood 
on the first careful reading of the text. Systematic efforts in 
this direction from the very first, coupled with a careful 
selection of sufficiently easy reading-material, will generally 
enable the teacher to dispense with translation to some ex- 
tent, even in classes too large to make any extensive use of 
German for grammaticaland lexicological explanations possible. 
Moreover, the reading aloud of German is necessary to make 
the student familiar with the sound and rhythm of the lan- 
guage, a familiarity that he must possess, if he would ever 
understand lyric and dramatic poetry. All this would seem 
to go without saying ; yet the writer knows of institutions 
where, a few years ago, it was the custom to translate Heine's 
poems into English, while the German text was never read. 
Surely, students that cannot understand Heine's lyrics after 
the simple reading of the text, and a few explanations, — either 
in German or in English, as the teacher may deem best, — are 
not yet ready to read Heine. 

Under ordinarily favorable circumstances the student should, 
by the beginning of the third year, have become so familiar 
with the sound of the language and the ordinary vocabu- 
lary, that he may begin to read the easier classics without 
translating more than occasional passages of exceptional 
difficulty. The time in class may then be devoted to inter- 
pretation in German, and to the discussion of the poet's 
life and works, likewise in German. We do not advocate 
that the pupils should always speak German ; under ordi- 
nary circumstances they cannot have had practice enough to 
do this without serious loss of time. But the teacher should, 
as a rule, speak German. Experience at Harvard and else- 
where shows that where systematic efforts in this direction 
are made, the results have been good. Toward the end of the 



FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN THE CLASS-ROOM. 183 

year there will be very few things connected with an outline- 
study of the classic writers of the eighteenth century that the 
teacher cannot present to his students in German. The advan- 
tages are apparent. The greater part of the time that is com- 
monly devoted to translation becomes available either for 
additional reading, or for the discussion of things for which 
there is usually no time, while the constant use of the lan- 
guage in the class-room may very largely take the place of 
special exercises in grammar and composition. Occasional 
examinations, conducted at least partially in English, amply 
suffice to control the progress of every member of the class 
and enable the teacher to adapt his method of treating the 
subject to the capacity and needs of his students. 

Much has been said and written about the disciplinary 
value of the study of modern languages, and about the neces- 
sity of using certain methods of instruction to insure these 
disciplinary advantages. It seems to us that here there is 
danger of mistaking the means for the end. To regard a cer- 
tain method of acquiring the new language rather than its 
possession as insuring literary culture and scholarship, seems 
to us a fundamental mistake, and one that cannot help exer- 
cising a harmful influence on this important branch of instruc- 
tion. To our mind, the man that knows three languages 
thoroughly is an educated man to the extent to which the 
study of three languages can make him such, whatever method 
he may have pursued in their acquisition. Surely there is no 
special virtue in learning paradigms or rules of syntax, except 
as they help us to understand and use the language, or as a 
means of cultivating the memory ; and for this latter purpose, 
selections from the best prose and poetry would seem to have 
the advantage in point of greater intrinsic value. On the 
other hand, surely no one will deny that an accurate knowl- 
edge of several languages, such as enables its possessor 
to read Goethe and Victor Hugo intelligently, and to dis- 
tinguish between the styles of different authors and the lau- 



184 ON THE USE OF THE 

guage of different periods, is evidence of high culture. It 
should not be supposed that such a knowledge can ever be ac- 
quired without the benefit of considerable mental discipline. 
Under very favorable circumstances, as when a person has ac- 
quired the elements of the foreign language when very young, 
and has had constant opportunity to hear and speak it, the pro- 
cess may have been a slow one and the discipline may not at 
any time have been very severe, but the aggregate effect must 
be the same ; just as a person that has always lived an active 
out-door life is apt to have a sound and well-trained body, with- 
out having ever gone through a regular course of " developing 
exercises." The question which the world puts to the student 
is not whether the method by which he learned German was 
productive of mental discipline, but whether he knows Ger- 
man. Nor is this way of putting the question confined to 
those intensely practical people that have no sympathy with the 
higher objects of liberal studies. A person that should claim 
to be permeated with the spirit of Greek culture, but could not 
read Homer or tell who Pericles was, would be ridiculed every- 
where, and justly so. All discussions about lending any 
special disciplinary value to the study of modern languages 
by the use of certain methods of instruction seem to us sheer 
waste of time. Let us teach the student German and French, 
and not trouble ourselves about mental discipline ; that will 
come of itself. If we give the student a sound, well-rounded 
knowledge of these languages, his faculties will of necessity 
be improved, and he will be better equipped for any profession 
he may afterward enter. The only question for us to consider 
is how to use the very limited time to the best advantage, so 
that we may take the student to the farthest possible point on 
the road toward a mastery of the tongue we profess to teach. 

A word, however, should be added about the special claim 
so commonly made that the greatest disciplinary advantages of 
language-study are after all to be obtained from the exercise 
of translating from one language into another, and especially 



FOREIGM LANGUAGE IN THE CLASS-ROOM. 185 

from a foreign language i;ito the student's vernacular. It has 
been said that every study, whether of Greek, mathematics, 
history, biology, or German should also be an exercise in 
English. We are prepared to grant this, but only in one sense. 
As far as the English language is used in the class-room, or in 
any exercise connected with the work in hand, it should be 
good and vigorous English. But the chief duty of the 
teacher of German is, after all, to teach German, not English, 
If he can incidentally contribute to the student's knowledge 
of English, it is clearly within his function to do so; but 
he will render English studies a greater service if he im- 
proves his instruction in German in such a manner that 
the student learns more in a given time and gains more 
time for special work in English. Nor can the exercise of 
translating from German into English be regarded as espe- 
cially useful in the acquisition of a good English style. On 
the contrary, for the same reasons for which we have above 
recommended the discontinuance of translation into German 
wherever the conditions render a better method possible, we 
must also regard the exercise of translating from German or 
any other foreign language into English as harmful rather 
than useful as far as the acquisition of a good English style 
is concerned ; harmful at least if carried to such an extent as 
is ordinarily the case. The fact that there are so few really 
good translations in any language is abundant proof that 
translating is an exceedingly difficult thing, far too difficult 
for the ordinary student — or teacher, for that matter — to 
attempt, except in very small amounts and with very great care. 
Frequent exercises in writing brief abstracts, in the student's 
own language, without the book before him, would seem to 
us much more useful in forming a good and vigorous English 
style, than a large amount of indifferent translating. 



German. 



Short German Grammar for Colleges and 

High Schools. By E. S. Sheldon, Assistant Professor of Romance Philology. 
Harvard University. Cloth. 109 pages. Price by mail, 65 cents. Introduction 
* price, 60 cents. 

THIS book is intended for students who wish to learn as rapidly as 
possible to read German, and who need an elementary book 
giving grammar enough for this purpose. 
Some of its characteristic features are : — 

1. Its brevity. Many details have been omitted which can be best 
learned by practice in reading and writing. 

2. The Declension of Adjectives is represented in a brief and 
clear form. 

3. The sections en Comjoosition and Derivation of Words give, 
briefly, information which greatly facilitates reading. They should 
be fixed in the mind by practice in reading at sight. 

4. In the treatment of the Arrangement of Words, the rules are 
given gradually, as occasion demands, and afterwards a summary is 
given, for convenient reference. 

5. In the English-German Vocabulary the gender and the declen- 
sion of the German nouns are given. 



Irving J. Manatt, Chancellor of 
Neb. State Univ. : I can say, after going 
over every page of it carefully in the class- 
room, that it is admirably adapted to use 
as an elementary or first course grajnmar. 

"Wm. H. Rosensteng-el, Pj tf. of 
German, Univ. of Wis. : \\'e would sug- 
gest to the high schools fitting for this 
University the use of Sheldon's Sho>^ t Ger- 
man Grammar. We finished this faook in 
eight weeks. High schools can easily fin- 
ish it in two terms with one recitation a 
day. 

W. H. van der Smissen, I'-Aiv. of 
Toronto : I can speak of it in terms of the 
highest praise. 



W. H. Eraser, Prof, in Toronto 
Univ. Uffer Canada Coll., Toronto: For 
those who do not wish to learn to speak 
the language this book is a positive boon. 

Chas. B. Wilson, Instructor in Ger- 
man, Cornell Univ. : For brevity, clear- 
ness, and completeness, it is the best that 
has come to my notice. It is admirably 
adapted to students who have already ac- 
quired, by the study of foreign languages, 
some knowledge of terminology and gram- 
matical rules, and who wish to begin read- 
ing as soon as possible. 

W. H. Appleton, Prof, of Modern 
Langs., Swartlnnore Coll.: It has very 
great merits, and is admirably adapted 
for the purpose designed. 



28 



GERMAN. 



yoynes-Meissner German Grammar. 

A German Grammar for schools and colleges, based on the Public School Ger- 
man Grammar of Professor A. L. Meissner, of Queen's College, Belfast. By 
Edward S. Joynes, Prof, of Mod. Langs., S. C."College. Half leather. 390 
pages. Price by mail, ^1.25. Introduction price, ^1.12. 

THIS book aims to supply a want not heretofore met — of ^ 
German grammar at once sufficiently elementary and progres- 
sive for the beginner, and sufficiently systematic and complete for the 
advanced scholar, yet within reasonable limits of size and price. 

The special circular on the book furnisJies ample evidence that it 
has taken its place in the very front rank of grammars intended for 
class-room nse. Frojn the many letters received and printed in the 
special circidar, we gnote the follo'wi7ig. Please note the strong words 
from those who have used the book. 



Calvin Thomas, Prof, of Germciii, 
Mich. U7tiv. : As a working grammar 
for the class-room, I know of nothing 
which appears to me quite as good. 

H. H. Boyesen, Prof, of Modern 
Languages, Columbia Coll., N . Y. : I find 
it a good and conscientious piece of work, 
and well adapted to college use. 

Franklin Carter, Pres. of Wil- 
liams Coll. : I am quite ready to speak 
well of it. It has neither too much nor 
too little for the working grammar of a 
college class. 

Carla Wenckebach, Prof, of Ger- 
man, Wellesley Coll. : The best book of 
its kind. It gives all necessary grammati- 
cal information in a well-arranged system 
and in a clear and concise form ; it is 
happy in illustration and practical in its 
exercises. I trust it will have the ex- 
tended use it so richly deserves. 

Sylvester Primer, Befl. of Mod- 
ern Latiguages , Uftiversity of Texas, 
Austin : I have used it and can give it my 
hearty recommendation as the very best 
text-book for acquiring a practical knowl- 
edge of German. It will prove the best 
German grammar either in America cr 
Europe. 



Scheie De Vere, Prof, of Modem 
La?iguages, Univ. of Virginia : I ex- 
pressed my very favorable opinion of it in 
strong terms. I prefer it to any other. 

C. W. Pearson, Prof of German, 
JVorth-westerfi Univ., III.: We put it down 
among the requirements for admission. 

Casimir Zdanowicz, Prof, of Ger- 
man, Vanderbilt Univ. : I am now using 
it, and find it the best practical working, 
grammar published in this country. 

J. A. Harrison, Prof, of Mod. 
Langs., Washington and Lee Univ.,Va.: 
It fullfils more thoroughly than any other, 
the demands for a complete, working, 
practical introduction to the study of Ger- 
man. 

D. Collin Wells, Teacher of Ger- 
mati, Phillips Acad., Andover: I am 
exceedingly pleased with it. We use it. 

Oscar Faulhaber, Teacher of Ger- 
man, Phillips Acad., Exeter: It is in 
my opinion a decided success. 

Mills Whittlesey. Master of Mod- 
ern La7iguages, Lawrenceville School, 
N. y. : Superior to any other similar 
work designed for the class-room. 



GERMAN. 



31 



A German Reader for Beginners in School 

or ColUge. By EuWARU S. JOYNES, Professor of Modern Languages in the 
University of South Carolina. Half leather. 282 pages. Price by mail, 
gi.oo. Introduction price, 90 cents. 

'["^HE most valuable qualities of this popular Reader are : — 
J. (i) It begins very simply, and is steadily progressive. (2) Thft 
selections are of general interest to all readers, and are of the highest 
order in literary merit. (3) It is representative in character, including 
some Roman type (35 pages out of 150), Schrift, and new and old 
orthography. (4) The notes are thoroughly helpful, and are sug- 
gestive and stimulating, as well as explanatory. (5) The vocabulary 
exhibits the formal relation of German words clearly to the eye : i.e. 
derivation, composition, etc., teaching the beginner to group words by 
form and meaning. (6) The brief appendixes include a unique list 
of Irregular Verbs, summary view of Accent, the Declension of Nouns, 
and the Order of Words, and of German and English cognates. 

Space permits only a brief selection from the tnany commendations 
received. A detailed pamphlet will be sent on application. 



Calvin Thomas, Prof, of German, 
Untv. of Mich. : The best Reader there 
is in the market. All three of my assist- 
ants will use it. 

O. Seidensticker, Prof of German, 
Univ. of Pa. : A superior book, excel- 
lently adapted for the object intended ; 
prepared with great care and judgment. 

H. S. White, Prof of German, Cor- 
nell Univ. : It matches well the Grammar. 
The two books have their place well 
defined and will do a good work. 

Waller Deering', Prof, of German, 
Vanderbilt Univ.: An admirable book 
for the purpose the author has in view, 
viz., to "smooth the way into German" 
for beginners, 

A. W. Spanhoofd, Teacher in St. 
Paul's School, Concord, N. H. : The 
Reader pleases me extraordinarily ; I 
shall make use of it here in my classes- 

W. H. Van der Smissen, Prof 
of German. Univ. of Toronto: A most 



admirable book. I am particularly 
pleased with the gradation in difficulty 
and with German script. 

F. E. Rice, /nst in German, III. Nor- 
mal School, Dixon, III. : We have used 
Joynes' German Reader for two terms 
and like it very much. We are satisfied 
that we have introduced the best text. 

Fred, Leop Schoenle, Teacher of 
German, High School, Louisville, Ky. : 
It is exactly the kind of class-book I have 
been looking for, ever since I began 
teaching German to American pupils. 

C. F. Kroeh, Prof, of Mod. Langs., 
Stevens Ins., Hoboken, N J. : Students 
will find in it excellent judgment and 
mature scholarship. 

Hermann Schonfeld, Teacher of 
German, Swain Free School, Nezv Bed- 
ford, Mass. : It could not be better 
arranged and annotated. Of its many 
merits, the principal one is its excellent 
gradation. 



32 



GERMAN: 



Selections for German Composition. 

By Charles Harris, Prof, of German Language and Literature in Oberlin 
College. 150 pages. Clotli. Introduction price, 50 cents. By mail, 60 cents. 

THIS book consists of progressive selections, eacli complete in 
itself, accompanied by notes and vocabulary. It is intended to 
give abundant material for exercise in the writing of simple German, 
and is compiled in the belief thg,t the first need of the student is much 
practice in easy exercises, rather than the slow and laborious writing 
of more difficult ones. Great pains have been taken to make the vo- 
cabular)^ complete and accurate. 



Alfred B. Nichols, Inst, in Ger- 
man., Harvard Univ., Cambridge, 
Mass. : I shall make use of the book, 
which seems to be well planned and exe- 
cuted. {Oct. II, 1S90.) 

Oswald Seidensticker, Prof of 
German, Univ. of Pennsylvattia, Phila- 
delphia : I have used the book in two 
classes since October and can now say 
that the favorable impression which it 
made upon me at the first and which led 
to its introduction has been confirmed and 
strengthened by three months' test. 

{fan. 12, 1S91.J 

German at Sight. 



Gustav Gruener, Instructor in 
Gej-man, Yale Univ., New Haven, Conn.; 
It strikes me as a very sensible book . I shall 
give it a trial. It is based on the right 
ideas. {Oct. 11, 1890.) 

S. Primer, Prof, of Modern Lan- 
guages, Color ado Coll., Colorado Springs: 
An excellent book ; just adapted to class 
work. {Oct. 19, 1890.) 

E. F. Norton. Prof . of Modern Lan- 
guages, Olivet Coll., Mich. : The variety 
and scope of the selections and care in the 
arrangement of notes all go to make up a 
most excellent book. {Oct. 11, 1890.) 



By Eugene H. Babbitt, recently Instructor in German, Harvard University. 
30 pages. Paper. Price, 15 cents. 

THE object of this pamphlet is to serve as a sort of syllabus of 
elementary grammar, to be used in connection with Sheldon's, 
Brandt's or Whitney's Grammar (the usual grammar with exercises 
being designed for another purpose) . Every teacher or student using 
either of these grammars should have this valuable if not indispensable 
accompaniment. 



James A. Harrison, Prof, of Ger- 
man, Washington and Lee Univ., Va. : 
An interesting pamphlet, very ingenious 
in its way, which sums up for beginners 
the main difficulties in the acquisition of 
German. 



Mrs. J. B. Dietz, Prof, of German, 
State Univ., lozva, Iowa City : It is by 
far the best instruction I have ever seen 
upon the subject. I shall try to put it in 
the hands of every student I have. 



GERMAN. 



Goethe s Hermann nnd Dorothea. 

With introduction, commentary, bibliograpliy and index to notes by Water- 
MANN T. Hewett, M. a., Ph. D., Professor of the German Language and Lit- 
erature in Cornell University. Cloth. 293 pages. Introduction price, 90 cts. 
Price by mail, ^^i.oo. 

THE present edition is based on Goethe's final revision as contained 
in his collected worlcs, which were being pubHshed at the time of 
his death. It gives also the readings of the earlier editions. The 
editor, in the preparation of this edition, has sought to lead from the 
study of this poem to a larger knowledge of the language, and espe- 
cially to acquaintance with the thoughts of the author as illustrated in 
this and in his other writings. 

Hence the notes have not been confined to brief grammatical ex- 
planations, but an effort has been made to interpret the poem from 
the poet himself. The sources of the poem, the author's language and 
the language of the time have been carefully studied. The history of 
the composition of the poem has been shown more fully by the recent 
publications of the Weimar Goethe Society, especially as contained in 
Goethe's Diary and Letters, and use has been made of these fresh 
materials. 

It is believed that this edition will not only guide to an intelligent 
knowledge of the poem itself, but afford useful material for the critical 
study of the language and writings of the author. 



Dr. G. Von Loeper, the distinguished 

editor of Goethe'' s Works : Professor 
Hewett's edition of Hermann und Dor- 
othea has given me a very high opinion 
of the standard of literary studies in 
America. Professor Hewett in Amer- 
ica, and M. Chuquet in France have 
attained the highest plane of excellence 
in those studies in the domain of classical 
German. 

Prof. Edward Dowden, LL.D., 

of the University of Dublin^ and Presi- 
de)it of the English G ethe Society: It 
seems to me admirable edited and very 
valuable both for student and teacher. 
I am exceedingly glad to have it among 
my Goethe books. 



Dr. C. Ruland, Director of the Goethe 
Museum in Weimar: I have read your 
excellent introduction and looked through 
some of your notes and can only con- 
gratulate your countrymen on having 
Goethe's poem brought near to them in 
such a superior manner. Such editions do 
infinitely more good than a great deal of 
our dry-as-dust Goethe philology. 

H. H. Boyesen, Prof. Germanic 
Languages and Literature, Columbia 
College, New York: I have already de- 
monstrated my appreciation of Professor 
Hewett's excellent edition of Hermann 
und Dorothea by adopting it as a text- 
book in my classes. It is a beautiful 
book and exceedingly well done. 



GERMAN. 55 



Heath' s New German Dictionary. 

In two parts : German-English and English-German. By Elizabeth Weir. 
Cloth. 1 126 pages. Retail price, |i. 50. German-Englisli part alone. Cloth. 

654 pages. Retail price, |;i.oo. Special prices for class use. 

THIS handy new dictionary, which has already won great success 
in England, meets a demand that has long existed in our, schools 
and colleges. It is concise and compact, represents the latest schol- 
arship, contains a large vocabulary, and is sold at a low price. It is 
based on the standard dictionaries of Lucas, Fliigel, Hilpert, Kohler 
and others. Prof. Nagel's treatise and other more recent authorities 
have been consulted on pronunciation. Each word has been care- 
fully translated, and a very large and varied collection of idioms has 
been added. Recondite details have been excluded, and instead ex- 
plicit, practical information is given. Distinctions among synonyms 
have been madft clear by examples, and the points in which the two 
languages differ have been carefully illustrated. 

The English-German part (471 pages), includes a twelve page ap- 
pendix on German orthography, as prescribed for schools in 1880, by 
the Prussian minister of Education. The arrangement of the syno- 
nyms is so clear that the English speaking student has no difficulty 
in selecting from several German words the equivalent of a given 
English word, as he does in English-German dictionaries compiled 
by Germans. Since the English-German part was chiefly written in 
Germany, the compiler, with the help of German friends, has included 
many technical expressions and idioms of every-day occurrence, not 
found in most dictionaries. Specimen pages sent on application. 



Calvin Thomas, Proj. of Germanic 
Langs, and Lits., Univ. of Mich.: I 
have no hesitation in pronouncing your 
New German Dictionary a first rate piece 
of work. One great objection to all small 
German dictionaries is that the type is 
necessarily very small. This book is de- 
cidedly better on this score than most of 
the dictionaries which are several times 
larger and cost several times as much. 
The definitions are well written, concise 
and correct. Of course no small German 
Dictionary (big one either, for that mat- 



ter) contains everything. This one will 
prove adequate for all ordinary purposes in 
school and college, and the wonder is how 
so good a dictionary can be sold so cheap. 

H. S. White, Prof, of German, Cor- 
nell Univ.: The Dictionary, as a whole, 
is remarkably fresh and comprehensive 
and the price puts it within range of most 
classes. The effect should be to improve 
the character of the study of German in 
the schools, where the books ought to ba 
widely employed. 



French. 



A Ca/npe7idioits French Grammar. 

In two independent parts, Introductory and Advanced, by A. Hjalmar Edgreii, 
Professor of Modern Languages and Sanscrit in the University of Nebraska, 
author of English and Sanscrit grammars, etc. Cloth. . Price of Part I, 35 cents. 
Mailing price of complete book, $\.2.'^. Introduction price, ^1.12. 

THIS Grammar was prepared with general reference to the needs 
of our American schools and colleges. Its limit is determined 
by the average time devoted to French in such institutions, and its 
method, by practical as well as critical aims. 

The First Pa?'t is devoted to such a brief, practical introduction 
to the French language as will make the learner familiar with its first 
essentials and enable him to begin reading with profit in half a term, 
or even less time. It contains only 66 pages, exercises included. 

The Second Part contains a methodical presentation of French 
etymology, syntax (with exercises at the end of the book), and versifi- 
cation, as well as a brief sketch of the relation of French to the 
Romance element in English. In the formation of rules the results 
of modern philological research have always, as far as practicable, 
been considered. An abundant collection of examples, arranged 
in columns, have been introduced to illustrate the rules of Syntax. 
To aid the Latin student especially and quicken philological investiga- 
tion, each chapter is preceded, parenthetically and unobtrusively, by 
a brief historical survey of the subject under consideration. Two 
sizes of type have been consistently used to denote what should be 
studied in 2i first course, and what be left for a second, or be used' for 
reference only. TJie Second Part, contains about 300 pages. The 
portion in heavy type is calculated to furnish work accessory to 
reading for about a term and a half. 



J. A. Harrison, Pt-of. of Mod. Langs., 
Washington and Lee Univ., Va.: I have 
subjected the Edgren's French Grammar 
to a careful examination and must say that 
I like it. It is, in my opinion, an excellent 
work, practical, well developed and concise. 



M. C. Gile, Prof, of Mod. Langs., 

Phillips Acad., Andover, Mass. : No 
book with which I am acquainted pre- 
sents so clearly and concisely the essen- 
tials of French Grammar for the beginner 
and a thoroughly scholarly treatment for 
the advanced student. (Feb. 9, i8gi.) 



FRENCH. 59 

Preparatory French Reader. 

By O. B. Super, Ph.D., Professor of Modern Languages, Dickinson College, 
Carlisle, Pa. 232 pages. I/2 leather. Price by mail, 90 cents. Introduction price, 
80 cents. 

MANY teachers of French have complained of the lack of easy 
and interesting reading suitable for beginners, and this book is 
intended to supply this want. It is not a "Classic French Reader," 
consisting of extracts in prose and poetry, but contains easy and en- 
tertaining stories of some length, — long enough to give the pupil a 
chance to become interested in them. The book aims to develop 
facility in reading, — to teach not literature but language, and thus to 
prepare for the appreciation of literature. The text, therefore, is so 
simple that translation will not be a burden, and so arranged that a 
vocabulary will be fixed, progress seen, and moderate facility in 
reading easily acquired. 

The selections are progressive in character, beginning with short 
translations from Andersen's tales, continuing with one from the 
Grimm Brothers and another from Mme. de Girardin. The second 
part is more advanced, containing tales or selections from Erckmann- 
Chatrian, A. Dumas, A. Daudet, Mery, and Mme. Foa, averaging 
some eight pages each. The third part consists of "Les Prisonniers 
du Caucase," by Xavier de Maistre. The poems are pleasing, and 
have been chosen chiefly on account of their simplicity. Notes and 
a vocabulary are added. The vocabulary contains one feature believed 
to be new; viz., the showing, as far as a difference in type would 
permit, the indebtedness of the English language to the French. 

Our special circular on this book shows that it has been received i7t 
all parts of the country with the appreciation to which its merits 
entitle it. The circular also shows that the book is in successful use in 
more than three hundred schools and colleges. 



Thos. McCabe, Ph.D., Prof, of 

Mod. Langs., hid. State Univ.: This 
book, which is admirably printed and 
exceedingly convenient, is well adapted to 
the wants of strictly junior students, for 
whom it has been produced. 

Hermann Sohoenfeld, Prof, of 



French, Swain Free School, New Bed- 
ford: Jel'aitrouve excellent tant pour 
la parfaite traduction des meilleures pieces 
d' Andersen et la matiere extremement 
bonne que pour le plan entier qui est 
logique et conforme k toutes les lois de 1' 
instruction moderne. Certainement je me 
servirai de ce livre k 1' occasion donnee. 



6o FRENCH. 

French by Reading. 

By Mrs. Louise S. Houghton and Miss Mary Houghton, New York City. 
348 pages. Half leather. Introduction price, ^1.12. Price by mail, ^1.25. 

THE method of this book is based upon reading with a view to the 
rapid and easy acquisition of a vocabulary. Grammatical rules 
are given as the need for them arrives, such rules being the more likely 
to be understood and remembered' because they have been needed. 
Four charming French stories by modern autliors form the basis of the 
method, giving altogether a vocabulary of more than three thousand 
French words. Especially recommended for home study and instruction. 

Charles E. Fay, Prof . of French, 
Ttifts College, Mass., (in address before 
the Mass. Teachers' Association) : I have 



recently seen a book called "French 
by Reading " which I believe to be a good 
thing. It presents the facts of the lan- 



guage in connection with- extracts for 
reading, thus making evident their rela- 
tion to the living whole, instead of giving 
the impression that grammar is an arbi- 
trary set of forms to which language 
must be made to conform. 



Materials for French Composition. 

By Charles H. Grandgent, Director of Modern Language Instruction in 
the Boston High and Latin Schools. In four parts. Part I. Based on L'Abb6 
Constantin. 26 pages. Part II. Based on Peppino, 26 pages. Part III. 
Based on Le Siege de Berlin. 25 pages. Part IV. Based on La Derniere 
Classe. 25 pages. Paper. Price, each 12 cents. 

By Miss A. C. Kimball, Teacher in Girls' High School, Boston. Based on La 
Belle Nivernaise. 26 pages. Paper. 12 cents. 

THESE e.xercises, originally made for use in the Boston High Schools, 
were composed in the belief that pupils can succeed in writing 
idiomatic French only through the careful study and imitation of 
French models. For each exercise the author has taken as a basis 
about a page of the French book used by the class, and has con- 
structed in English, from the words and phrases it contains, a new 
conversation or narrative. The pupil first studies thoroughly the 
original page, and then, with the help of this text and of his gram- 
mar, but without consulting a dictionary, translates the English into 
French. The pamphlets are graded, No. IV. being the easiest, and 
the one on La Belle Nivernaise the most difficult. 

Emile Achert, Prof, of French, to composition I have tried hitherto 
Vassar College., Poughkeepsie, N. Y. : I have disappointed me. This is the first 
am delighted with Grandgent's French step in the right direction, and must 
Composition, and have already ordered prove a boon to both students and in- 
it for class use. All the 50-called aids structors. 



FRENCH. 6i 

Coittes de Fees: 



Classic French Fairy Tales, with Notes and Vocabulary by Edward S. 
JOYNES, Professor of Modern Languages in the University of Soutli Carolina. 
Paper. 155 pages. Introduction price, 35 cents. By mail, 40 cents. 

A SELECTION of the most familiar and favorite Fairy Tales, from 
the French of Perrault, Mme. D'Aulnoy, etc. An easy and 
cliarming text, edited for beginners of any age, also, especially, as an 
introduction to sight reading ior ir\or& advanced students. 

The editor's experience and skill as a teacher of French are notably 
shown in the helpful and stimulating notes, and especially in the vo- 
cabulary, which contains new and striking features. 

Pierre et Cainille. 

By Alfred de Musset. Edited, with notes, by O. B. Super, Ph. D., Profes- 
sor in Dickinson College, Pa. Paper. 65 pages. Price, 20 cents. 

THIS beautiful and touching story is one of the best in the whole 
range of De Musset's prose writings, and is entirely free from all 
those objectional features which render many stories unsuitable for 
the class-room. Pierre and Camille were deaf-mutes, pupils of the 
celebrated Abb6 de PEp6e, who was one of the first to try and teach 
such unfortunates, and the story thus becomes historically interesting. 
The style is pure and the language simple. 

Sandeaus Mile, de la Seigliere. 

Edited by F. M. Warren, Professor of Modern Languages in Adelbert Col- 
lege, Cleveland, O. 15S pages. Paper. Introduction price, 30 cents. Price 
by mail, 35 cents. 

THIS edition of a text-book, now recommended in the requirements 
for the New England colleges, is prepared with the demands of 
rapid reading in mind. The notes lay especial stress on the social 
and historical setting, and, while furnishing abundant translations, en- 
deavor to keep before the student the literary excellences of this popu- 
lar comedy. In the Introduction has been gathered what is essen- 
tial to the understanding of Sandeau's life and works, together with a 
comparison of the plot and treatment of subject in both novel and play. 

Jules Luquiens, Assoc. Prof. Mod. book, which are excellent, I must say that 
Langs., Mass. Institute Technology : Not Dr. Warren's work strikes me as a model 
•Speaking of the outward features of the specimen of editorial tact and care. 



FRENCH. 



63 



Historiettes Modernes, Vohtnie I. 

An intermediate Reader with etymological, historical, and explanatory notes, 
selected and annotated by C. FONTAINE, B. L., L. D., Professor of French in 
Mt. Vernon Seminary, Washington, D. C. 160 pages. Cloth. Price by mail, 
65 cents. Introduction price, 60 cents. 

THIRTEEN short, pure, and unusually interesting stories, for early 
reading. As they were all first published in 1887, they are em- 
phatically modern French. In his choice of selections the author was 
ever influenced by a desire to produce such as dealt with the every- 
day occurrences of life, thus affording teachers as well as students the 
best material for varied topics of conversation. The notes are very 
full and are well calculated to lead the student to a knowledge of the 
spirit and idioms of the French language. 



Alc6e Portier, Prof, of French, 
Tulane Univ., Nezu Orleans : J'ai lu 
votre livre avec beaucoup de plaisir ; votre 
choix d'histoires est tr6s-bien fait, et je 
tacherai de trouver moyen de m'en servir 
dans mon cours. 



J. H. Westcott, Prof, of French, 
Princeton Coll., N.J.: The Historiettes 
Modernes please me very much. We want 
a great deal more of this living French 
prose, small unities, as distinguished from 
extracts. 



Historiettes Modernes, Volume II. 

An intermediate Reader with etymological, historical, and explanatory notes, 
selected and annotated by C. Fontaine, B. L., L. D., Professor of French in 
Mt. Vernon Seminary, Washington, D. C. 164 pages. Cloth. Price by mail, 
65 cents. Introduction price, 60 cents. 

THE purpose and plan of this volume is the same as that of Volume 
I. It contains fifteen new French stories of every-day life for easy 
reading, representing the following authors : Andre Theuriet, Jean 
Rameau, Jean Richepin, Guy de Maupassant, Paul Perret, Emmanuel 
Arfene, Erckmann-Chatrain, Jules Simon, C. H. Nuitter, F. Beissier, 
and J. Lemaitre. Short biographical sketches in French are prefixed 
to the stories of the various authors. 



B. Li. Bowen, Professor of French, 
Ohio State University : I have intro- 
duced the book, and find the selections 
even more attractive than the first 
volume. I am sure it will prove a most 
satisfactory book for second year work. 
( Oct. 7, 1890.) 



Mills Whittlesey, Modern Lan- 
guage Master, Lawrcnceville School, 
N. J. : These stories need no commen- 
dation of mine. They will be used by 
every teacher who sees them. There is 
not an objectionable word or phrase in 
either volume. {J'^h' 1°. 1890.) 



FRENCH. 65 

Victor Hugos Hemiani. 

Edited by John E. Matzke, Professor of French in Indiana University, 
Bloomington. 228 pa^es. Cloth. Introduction price, 70 cents. Price by mail, 
80 cents. Paper. Introduction price, 40 cents. Price by mail, 50 cents. 

NO literary production of the first half of the present century forms 
as convenient a point of departure for the study of the Romantic 
movement in France as Victor Hugo's Hernani. This drama embodies 
both the excellences and the faults of the French romanticists, and the 
literary feud, which is inaugurated, was equal to the famous quarrel 
about the Cid in the seventeenth century. 

This edition is to meet the wants of college students. It contains an 
introduction intended to show the true position of the play in the his- 
tory of the French drama, and the notes furnish the information neces- 
sary to a correct appreciation of the text. 

Wm. K. Gillett, Prof, of French, 
Ufiiversity of City of New York : I am 
greatly pleased with it. I shall undoubt- 
edly use it in my class room before the 



close of the year. The introduction adds 
much to the value of the work. 

Merimees Colomba. 



Arthur G. Canfield, Prof of 
Fre7ich, Slate University, Kansas : I 
am very glad to see that the needs of 
those students who are after the literary 
meaning and value of the play have been 
attended to. 



Edited by John A. Fontaine, Professor of French in the University of Missis- 
sippi. 195 pages. Cloth. Price by mail, 70 cents. Introduction price, 60 
cents. Paper. Price by mail, 40 cents. Introduction price, 35 cents. 

IN M6rim6e's Coloviba the student is presented with a very fine speci- 
men of the XlXth century French prose, as it is found in the best 
Contes and Nouvelles. M^rim^e's style is that of a careful writer aim- 
ing at artistic perfection within the bounds of simplicity and elegance. 
The sentence is classically constructed, and nothing obstructs the 
lucidity of either diction or thought. Moreover, the composition of 
Coloniba is symmetrically planned, all the characters are well delin- 
eated, and the vivid and realistic manner in which the story of the 
Corsican vendetta is told cannot fail to win the reader's interest. 



T. Logie, Prof, of French in Wil- 
liams College, in Modern Laiiguage 
Notes : It is refreshing to have an edition 
of one of the masterpieces of fiction — 
Merimee's Colomba — annotated by Dr. 
Fontaine. . . . These notes are excellent. 



E. S. Joynes, Prof, of French, 
South Carolina College : There is little 
room for any criticisms other than un- 
qualified praise. The notes show schol- 
arship, good taste and skill in an un- 
usual degree. 



72 FRENCH. 

Introduction to Modern Fre^ich Lyrics. 

Edited, with Notes, by B. L. Bowen, Associate Professor of Romance Lan- 
guages in Oliio State University, Columbus. 198 pages. Cloth. Introduction 
price, 60 cents. Price by mail, 70 cents. 

THIS book contains about 150 pages of text, followed by copious 
notes. Its object is to offer to college classes in French a judicious 
collection, thoroughly annotated, of some of the most characteristic 
and best known of the modern lyrics of France. The patriotic song.^' 
of the Revolution are made the starting point ; such as the (^a ira, 
Marseillaise, Chant du Depart, and other typical poems, which it is 
thought the average student at present too seldom sees, are espe- 
cially emphasized. These are followed by selections from B^ranger, 
Victor Hugo, Musset, Gautier and others. The notes, which are 
preceded by general remarks on the character of the versification, will 
be full. They are largely etymological in character and aim to intro- 
duce the student to the principles underlying the development of the 
language. 

A. Guyot Cameron, Professor of 
French, Yale University (in Modern 
Language Notes) : The selection for the 
space is very harmonious. . . . The notes 
are full without being wearisome, the in- 
troductory notices of authors and poems 
being exceedingly good. . . . We can but 

Corneilles Polyeucte. 



thank the editor for a delightful, origina't 
and scholarly addition to our texts of the 
highest class. 

T. P. Crane, Prof. French, Cor 
ncll University. The selection seems ti 
me good and the work is excellentlji 
edited. 



Edited by Alcee Fortier, Professor of the French Language and Literature 
in Tulane University of Louisiana. Paper. 150 pages. Introduction pricej 
30 cents. Price by mail, 35 cents. 

THIS sublime play placed on the stage the heroism of the Christian 
martyr. Though not as great as Le Cid, Polyeucte is a master- 
piece — one of the most inspiring of Corneille's works, — one of the 
most touching in French literature. In this edition the variants are 
given, as it is thought highly important to follow the workings of a 
great mind, and to observe to some extent the author at work. The 
notes are philological, grammatical, explanatory, but chiefly literary. 
An attempt has been made to explain thoroughly the character of 
the play, and also to call attention to the points of interest in th? 
Other works suggested by the tragedy analyzed. 



Modern Languages, 



BOOKS FOR 

BEGINNERS. 



GERMAN. — Sheldon's Short Gerfnan Grammar. (Price, 60 cents.) 

For those who have studied other languages and wish to learn to read German. 

Harris' German Lessons. -(Price, 60 cents.) 

An Elementary Grammar, adapted for a short course or as introductory. 

yoynes-Meissner German Grammar. 

Part I., "Shorter German Grammar," 80 cents; complete Grammar, Ji. 12. 

y Dynes' German Reader for Begittners. (Price, 90 cents.) 

An introduction to reading; with notes, vocabulary and English Exercises. 

DeutsMs Select German Reader. (Price, 90 cents.) 

With notes and vocabulary. May be used with or without a grammar. 

Boisen''s Preparatory German Prose. (Price, 90 cents.) 
Excellent selections of prose with full suggestive notes. 

Va7t der Sj?iissen''s Grimm's Marchen and Der Taucher. (75 cents.) 
In Roman type. With full notes and vocabulary. 

Super^s Andersen's Marchen. (Price, So cents.) 
Graded, as far as possible, and with notes and vocabulary. 

Fatdhaber's One Year Course in German. (Price, 60 cents.) 
A brief synopsis of German Grammar, with reading exercises. 

FRENCH. — Edgren's Compendious French Grammar. 

Part I., the essentials of French Grammar, 35 cents. Complete book, ^1.12. 

Grandgenfs Introductio7i to French Grafnmar. (Ready in 1893.) 
An Elementary Grammar, adapted for a short course or as introductory. 

Grandgenfs Materials for French Composition. (12 cents each.) 
Pamphlets based on Super's Reader and other texts. 

Super's Preparatory French Reader. (Price, 80 cents.) 

Graded and interesting reading for school or college. With notes and vocabulary. 

Houghton' s French by Reading. (Price, ^1.12.) 
For home or school. Elementary grammar and reading. 

Lyon and de Larpent's French Translation Book. (Price, 60 cents.) 
A very easy Reader with English exercises for reproduction. 

yoynes' French Fairy Tales. (Price, 35 cents.) 

With notes, vocabulary and English exercises based on the text. 

ITALIAN. — Grandgenfs Short Ltalian Grammar. (R-ice, 80 cents.) 
All the Grammar needed for a short course. 
Grandgenfs Italian Composition. (Price 60 cents.) 

SPANISH. — Edgrejt's Short Spanish Grammar. (Price, So cents.) 
All the grammar needed for a short course. 

Todd's Cervantes' Don Quixote. (In press.) 
Twelve chapters with notes and vocabulary. 

Ybarra's Practical Method in Spanish. (Price, ^1.20.) 



D. C. HEATH & CO, Publishers, 

BOSTON, NEW YORK, CHICAOO AND LONDON. 



French Texts. 



Edgren's French Grammar. 

Edgr ell's Grammar, Part I. 

Grandgenfs Materials for French 
Composition, Five graded pam- 
phlets. 

KimbaWs Materials for French Com- 
position. 

Storr^s Hints on French Syntax, with 
exercises. 

Houghtott's French by Reading. 

Heath^s French Dictionary. 

Heaths Fr.-Eng, Dictionary. (Part 
I. of the above.) 

Super's French Reader. 

French Fairy Tales. 

France's Abeille. 

De Mussel's Pierre et Camille. 

Lamartine' s yeanne d' Arc. 

Souvestre's Le Mari de Mm 



Solange. 
Souvestre's 

Toils. 
Souvestre's 

Ouvrier. 
Historieltes 

Vol. II. 



de 

Un Philosophe sous les 
Les Confessions d'un 
Modernes. Vol. I. and 



Sandeau's Aflle. de la Seigliere. 
Merimee's Colombo. 
De Vigny's Le Cachet Rouge, 
De Vigiiy's La Canne de yonc. 
De Vigny's Cinq ALars. 
Victor LLugo's La Chute. 
Victor LLugo's Bug yargal. 
Victor LLugo's LLernani. 
Trois Conies Choisis par Daudet. 
Daudefs La Belle-Nivernaise. 
Choix d'Extraits de Daudet. 
Sept Grands Auteurs de XLX' .Siecle. 
Racine's Esther, 
French Lyrics. 
Corneille's Polyeucle. 
ALoliere's Le Tartuffe. 
Moliere's Le Medecin ALalgre Lui. 
ALoliere's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. 
Lamartine's Aleditations. • 

Piron's La ALelromStie. 
Warren's Primer of French Literature. 
LLisloire de la Litterature Fran^aise ^ 
Erckmann-Chatrian's Waterloo. 
Sand's La Mare au Diable. 
Beaumarchais' Barbier de Seville. 
Dwnas' L' Evasion au Due de Beaufort. 



SPANISH. 

Edgren's Spanish Gratnmar. 
Ybarra's Practical Method, 
Cervantes' Don Quixote, 



ITALIAN. 

Grandgent's Ltalian Grammar. 
Grandgenfs Ltalian Composition, 
Testa's L'Oro e I'Orpello, 



Very many other texts are in preparation. 



D. C. HEATH & CO., Publishers, 

BOSTON, NEW YORK AND CHICAGO. 



German Texts. 



yoynes-Meissner Grammar. 

Joynes' Shorter Grammar. (Part I. 

of the above.) 
Harris's German Lessons. 
Harris's German Composition. 
Skeldon^s Short Graminar. 
Babbitfs German at Sight. 
Faulhaber s One Year Course. 
Meissner''s German Conversation. 
HeatKs German Dictionary. 
HeatKs Ger.-Eng. Dictionary. (Part 

I. of the above.) 
Joynes' German Reader. 
DeutscK's Colloquial Reader. 
Boisen's Prose Reader. 
Grimm's Marchen and Schiller's Der 

Taucher. 
Leander's Traumereien. 
Storm's Imme7isee. 
Andersen's Bildefbuch ohne Bilder. 
Andersett's Marchen, 
Heyse's L' Arrabbiata. 
Von Hillern's H'dher als die Kirche. 
Hauff's Der Zwerg Nase. 
AH Baba. " 

Onkel und Nichte. 
Hauff's Das kalte Herz. 
Novelletten-Bibliothek. Vol. I. and 

Vol. II. 
Hoff7na7in' s Historische Erzdhlungen. 
Stifters Das Haidedorf. 
Meyer's Gustav Adolph's Page. 

Many other texts in preparation 



Chamisso's Peter Schlemihl. 
Jensen's Die braune Erica. 
RiehPs Der Fluch der Schonheit. 
Francois' Phosphorus Hollunder . 
Freytag's Die Journalisten. 
Freytag's Aus deni Staat Friedrichs 

des Gross en. 
Holberg's Niels Klimm. 
Eichendorff's Taugenichts. 
Lessing's Minna von Bar7ihelm. 
Schiller's Der Taucher. 
Schiller's Neffe als Onkel. 
Schiller's Jungfrau von Orleans. 
Schiller's Der Geisterseher, Part I. 
Schiller's Ballads. 
Goethe's Dichtung U7id Wahrheit- 

Books I. -IV. 
Goethe's Sesenheim. 
Goethe's Meisterwerke. 
Goethe's Her7na7itt und Dorothea. 
Goethe's Torquato Tasso. 
Goethe's Faust, Part I. 
Heine's Die Harzreise. 
Hei7ie's Poe77is. 

Gore's Ger77ian Scie7ice Reader. 
Hodges' Scie7itific Ger77ia7i. 
We7ickebach's Deutsche Literaturge- 

schichte. Vol. I., with Muster stiicke. 
We7ickebach's Deutsche Literatur e- 

schichte. Vol. II. 
Wenckebach' s Meisterwerke des Mit- 

telalters. 



D. C. HEATH & CO., Publishers, 

BOSTON, NEW YORK, AND CHICAGO. 



